davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
vZHEY NEkE KZZNEA GQ4Tu Wz20lE w STU

jals of India the cook is always Brah-
man, for otherwise the prisoners of the
lower castles would not eat the food. |
am told that prisoners have been hosged
and have starved to death rather than
eat victuals cooked by a low-caste man.
During my travels in the far east
have frequently been upon steamers with
Hindus of one grade or another. Those
of the higher castles carry their COOKS
with them. They bring their own water
on board and never come to the general
tables When the Rajah of Jeypore went
to England not long ago he had a run
retinue of servants and his own Kitchen,
which could be entered by none but his
own people.
The other day in visiting temple here
at Benares I met a Hindu with a beauti-
full brass bowl. He had just come up from
the Ganges, and placed the bowl on a
ledge and was sitting beside it, l picked
it up, thinking to buy it. Thereupon the
man grew angry. and my suidet said that
had committed an objectionable sin.
He said the man could not use the
bowl until it had been heated red hot In
the fire and thus purified.
The Hindus will not touch water which
has not been drawn by their own people,
and they must not eat food cooked in
water supplied by different castles. This
fact for long time hindered the use Of
the water works which the English have
introduced into some of the cities, but
by special dispansaton granted by the
Brahnlans they are now raising the ban
as to water on tap. This is one of the
things tending to modify caste. An
other is the railways and tramwayS.
At first the Brahmas and others of the
higher castles wanted cars of their own.
They could not get them, and now all
must travel together. The schools of
the government admit pupils of all castles
and the Brahman boys now sit in the
same rooms with the Sudras.
The Brahmans have also changed GER
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
Ar TIE MzzZEyzd4I

tain caste rules as to drink. The stores
are full OF new things from abroad, and
these are desired by all castles in COM
mon. 1t is allowable nov to use patent
medicines and soda water without losing
ones soul. A man is not damned If he
buys ice made by a foreigner, and he can
eat soda crackers without being polluted.
It. is the same with ginger ale and other
soft drinks.
1t is different as to meats. The flesh
of the cow is sacred, and any Hindu who
would eat the liquid extract of beef would
be damned, and a ham sandwich is a
passport to hell / remember asking my
Hindu guide the price of tenderloin
steak. He refused to defile his mouth
with the word, and would have lost caste
had he handled the flesh.
have before me the government statis-
tics of the chief castles of India as they
are today. This divides them into about
one hundred different classes. some
numbering millions and some but a few
hundred thousand. l am surprised to see
that the fakirs, or religious devotees, have
more than 1000, 600 in India. I see them
everywhere, undergoing all sorts of morti-
fication of the flesh to attain merit and
consequent salvation. l photographed
one today sitting in a handcart which
was pushed from place to place by his
affair, open all around and decorated
with flowers. The fakir was the most
horrible figure 1 have ever seen outside
catacombs or medical museum. He
was living skeleton. almost stark naked.
with great round. staring eyes and long,
frowsy brown hair. His hands lay over
the dashboard of the vehicle: they were
claws. His shoulder bones almost pro-
truded. and his knee bones. over which
the flesh was tightly drawn, were fitted
under his armpits. so that he sat erect
with his knee actually under his arms.
His face and body were smeared with
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
TIE NA4EGkAZhMpaOG05 amHER k4tES

ashes. and his great eyes alone showed
tie soul behind.
I have seen many Of these men during
my travels in India. They never wash
and pride themselves on their unclean-
ness. Their methods Of torture are le-
gion. l have seen some who have sat or
stood until their bodies have stiffened.
and they could hardly move If they
would Some hold their arms erect until
the nails grow into the flesh. There are
fakirs at Benares who never sit down
and others who lie on beds of spikes or
nails or upon masses OF broken stones
Some try to acquire merit by refusing
to sleep, and others by eating all sorts OF
vile foods. Such men carry about human
skulls as drinking cups.
Among these religious frauds are those
who claim they can remain buried UNDER
ground for time without dying. Others
are able to walk through fire, and at
every holy fair you may see half dozen
or so undergoing the ordeal of the five
fires. The fakir sits almost naked, with
four fires about him. just far enough
away to prevent the flesh from sizzling.
He is out in the open, and the fifth fire is
the tropical sun. which blazes down on
his head.
You have all heard of the Juggernaut
car. That is a fraud that was carried on
at one place in India. Among other tor
ments are the thrusting of pieces OF iron
through the flesh and especially through
the tongue, and another is the swinging
to and fro of steel hooks fastened into
the muscles of the arms and breasts.
Such things are not common here. But
they may be seen now and then; and the
people believe that those who practice
them acquire merit, and thereby attain
a higher position in the nsmigratiOns
to come. FRANK O.. CARPENTER
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

exactly the same way. All have gone to
universities. passed the faculty of law
and had the sacramento Doctor JUriS
stuck to their names. From the moment
the young jurist becomes unpaid Re
ferendar'-if he chooses law, he lives
divorced from life because married in
separately to a thousand documents.
forms, regulations prescriptions and rules
of procedure. And when he has got into
the first five classes of the civil serv-
ice and can put before his name actual
privy councillor he is the same man Of
documents of yore. AS a young beer
drinking student he has more knowledge
of life than forty years later as states
minister His titles. all of which end
in rat or "counclor.'' are long as
his documents. He signs himself Exon
OmiekommiSsionsrat or "Obermilita rim
tendanturrat'; he may even hope to
reach the sesquipedalian rank of "Ober-
Observation-Disclosures which the die
tionary briefly defines as IAN official in
Grundstuc kszusamm enlegungssachen."
Only few of his titles are brief and
pronounceable There Is. for instance, a
'Postrat' and "Sanitaetsrat," and even
..Rechnunesrat." The last is an Of
ficisl in the reckoning or accountancy de-
partment A too witty American who
lately dined at the Rheingold restaurant
hilariously hailed waiter "See here
Herr Rechnungsrat there's a mistake in
your reckoning" He paid a five-dollar
fine for speaking extensively of the pub
lie service
Austrian red tape is much older than
German, and though not so efficiently in
fallible, is much more picturesque. Some
of its procedure dates from the Holy
Roman empire. The premier, Baron
Bienerth, lately described an inquiry into
the petition chancellery" of the Kaiser
Franz Josef. =.
a petition" he said, sis read by nine
teen separate persons before being put
before the emperor. If the nineteenth
discovers an informally, he returns it to
the eighteenth with note, the eighteenth
back to number one, SO that perhaps
three years afterward the petitioner gets
it back for correction.
But even Austria is a Pawnee chiefs
wiswam for simplicity of procedure COM
pared with Russia. AS 132 100000 Rus
slams out of 15500O,O00 cannot write. the
literate 25,OOOOGO mostly officials) must DO
the documenting for the rest. True. the civil
'tchin,'' or list of official ranks is short,
consisting only of eleven, from collegiate
registrar" to states secretary" Ger
many has 173 ranks) The complexities
of the procedure in all state departments
are such that the state issues diagram
for the use of young officials, showing
by lines and arrow heads the order of the
instances" whittier every paper has to
go. 1t looks like the Cretan labyrinth.
From the hands of the hall porter, who
takes in the mail. up to the minister,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

name is Sarasvati. She is a gorgeous
lady who rides upon a peacock and is
clad only in jewels. She is the especial
patron of music and speech. All liars
pray to her, and she wipes off their sins.
4 =
Vishnu. the second great god, is wor
SHIPPED here at Benares in numerous
temples. He is known as the preserver
and he came down to earth to deliver
man from demons. snakes and wicked
men. and from anger, avarice and lust.
He has his own special heaven, and can
take his followers there. This god is said
to have had ten incarnations. I have de-
Scribed one of them in a previous letter
in my visit to the monkey temple here,
where he is revered as Hanuman. AS
Rama. he is the model son, brother and
husband, and as such his name Rama
is given to children When friends meet
they say Rama's name twice in way of
good day. AS kriShna, ViShnu posed as
lover and husband, and according to
the records he will fit the part. He had
over 10000 wives and $4,000 children, not
counting the girls.
Vishnu's wife was called Lakshmi. She
was the goddesse of wealth and beauty,
and Sprang from the froth of the ocean
when ii was churned by the gods. She
corresponds somewhat to AphroGite, the
sea at Cyprus and was worShiped by the
Greeks as the goddess of marriage and
love.
The last of the three great gods is
SILVA, the destroyer, associated with
whom is his wife. the terrible Kali. This
sacred lady wears a garland of human
skulls, a necklace of dead mans hands
and her long outstretched red tongue is
supposed to always drip blood. l visited
one of her chief temples during my stay
al Calcutta. 1t lies on the banks of the
Hoogfly. and In 1t sacrifices of kids and
goats are now made almost daily. They
were killing a goat during my stay, and
scores of worshipers passed me on my way
in, each carrying kid in his arms. Before
the British took India human sacrifices
were made to propitiate this goddess, and
during a famine of about a generation
ago human heads decked with flowers
were placed on the altar. Kali was the
goddess Of the thugs. the caste which
used to travel throughout India, stran-
Cling victims in her honor. She is sup
posed to live in the cemeteries and de-
light in pestilence and famine and all the
misery of mankind. Her worship is al
together a worship of fear. 1t is one of
the most revolving features of the Hindu
religion.
AS to SILVA himself. he has 1000 differ
emit names. Upon his head he carries
the Ganges. He has three eyes and
around his neck is a garland of skulls
His weapons are bow. thunderbolt
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
Like Rhine Wines.

A LION B. PARKER. In the smoking
"A room of the Berlin. rejoiced in the
fact that there are so many German
Americans in the United States
These solid, intelligent. Industrious and
honest men, he said. ''are great boon
to our country. There are lot of them.
but / wish there were more
lat the same time there are lot Of
them On the boat going over my neigh
Dor in the dining saloon picked UP card
the first day out and, glancing down it,
said to the steward:
Steward. my wife and l will have a
bottle of Settler. half bottle of Nier-
steiner and a half bottle Of Oppenheimer
beg pardon said the steward: that
isn't the wine card, sir; that's the pas
senger list 30
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

the foe of bureaucrats. Witte involun-
tarily did more than any one else to in
crease the bureaucracy's power by his CO.
lossal state ownership achievements. He
bought up practically all the private rail-
roads. built II 900 miles of his own, and
substituted state drink monopoly all
over the empire for the private saloons
and drink shops which he appropriated.
BY such means he added to the total OF
state employees about 100000 men, and cor
respondingly diminished the number OF
employees in private enterprises. So
White left the bureaucracy more numer-
GUS more powerful and in control of
twice as much wealth as before. And
with this increment to its power the bu-
reaucracy became more and more red
tapish.
The second Russian anti-red-taper was
the late Prince Michael Hilkoff, minister
of communications, an american" like
Dernburg, who learned practical ways by
driving a locomotive out west. 1t was
he who in less than year sent 100000
soldiers, with guns and stores, over the
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
Just Like a Man.

MRS E S. STEWART. the secretary
lv1 of the National Woman Suffra &c
Association said in recent address IN
Chicago:
so-called new woman Of demoralizing the
home and on the other hand they go
about the world abusing the home with
all the cynical wit they can muster up.
"Once, on a steamer, the captain rallied
a lot against the voting woman and her
neglect of household duties. And 1t was
this same captain of course. who laughed
when a pretty girl said to him on the
promenade deck:
".Don't you ever get homesick?'
.Homesick? Ha. ha, ha" he roared.
why, no. I'm never home enough.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
Too Naive.

MAYOR GAYNOR, at a dinner IN New
AVA York, said of a politician excuse:
1T was altogether too ingenious ana
naive. 1t reminded me OF the outer
story.
gentleman advertised for a good Dut-
Ter. and the next morning young man
presented himself
Have you got references the gen.
tleman asked
Yes, sir said the applicant have
a number of excellent references.
And where did you get them fronF
said the gentleman.
From the reference library, sir, was
the reply
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

decrepit Single-track Siberian railway.
The latest Russian who is fighting red
tape is also minister of communications.
His name is Sergius Ruchloff For a
year past his exploits as a foe of chan
celloryiSm' have filled the native press.
Instead of sitting in his office signing
papers, he wanders all over the empire,
sometimes disguised as a workman or
common soldier, and everywhere he has
ordered the arrest or dismissal of thieves
and idlers. But this reformer's days are
numbered. The invincible bureaucrat Is
rising in insuppressive revolt. and Ruch-
loft will soon have to go the way OF
White and Hikoff and Dernburg and
all other champions of common sense
and business, as against the procedure
or hiiing up meaningless forms and
stamping unnecessary paDers. Red tape
is an essential feature of Europe: Europe
at the bottom Of its heart is fond of IT.
and the man who will overthrow the all
deVour1ng monster has yet to be born.
(ConyriCht in the United States and Great Britain
by curtis Brown All rights strictly reserved.)
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07
The Secret.

nR. MINER LEE BATES, president OF
Hiram College, enlivened, in a recent
address at Hiram, Ohio, knotty etymo-
logical problem with a story.
We must not dodge our problem as the
boy did," said DIR. Bates.
"A teacher. you see was having a
great deal Of difficulty in making clear
to a boy the meaning of the word re-
cuperate.'
Now said the teacher. your father
Is hard worker, isn't he?'
Yes, sir, he is said the boy.
dead tired. is he not?'
Yes, sir, he is
Then pursued the teacher, since It's
night. and he's dead tired, and work
over, what does he do?'
'Ah,' said the boy, that's what moln-
er wants to know"
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

RUSSIAN HAROUN AL RASCHlD.
Sergius RuchiOff, minister of cOmmu-
nications. who wanders about the cOun-
try, disguised workman. In the
search for iHefficiency and dishonesty.
Observation-Disclosures or "chancellorylsm,
and the officials who run it are known
as gentlemen of the twentieth, OWING
to the fact that they live only for the
twer tieth of each month. the day Wheh
salaries are paid. Tea drinking, cigar
cite smoking and whit playing Tor
high stakes complete the happy picture
so that Russia. with thu most compl-
Gated administration in all Europe. has
also indisputably the most inefficient.
Three men have warred valHntly with
Russian red tape. First was Count
Sergius Witte Witte refused to read any
papers at all and ran the ministry Oh
finance by swearing and growing through
the telephone. He hurt mems feelings
but got things done. However, though
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

concluded would have ruined any business
man, he declared.
, Routine killed all governmental genius.
but, said Gwinner, though talent is need
ed for everything, genius is required for
borrowing. A few months sooner an
angry storm ragged in the Prussian diet
over the monstrous superf1uity of clerks
and writer's in state producing enter
prises. These employees produce nothing.
but only keep books. fill needless forms.
write interminable documents, and stamp
millions of papers. In Wilhelmshav>
dockyard it appears, there is one ''ad-
ministrative"-that is. paper-scr bling
official for every three men engaged in
manual labor, whereas even in England,
which is red-tapy enough, the proper
ton is one to fifteen. And all men, eX-
cept the bureaucrats themselves, admit
the evil. In June 1909. Kaiser Wilhelm
nominated commission to accelerate
and simplify the state procedure But
the bureaucrats so managed that thir-
teen out OF eighteen members were them
selves bureaucrats. And today every
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

it thirty years in virgin security, WrlIihs
an annual report on its health and offer
ing it solemnly to the finders helrs IL
they pay for an advertisement coSunS
half a dollar. For though Eurore Is
the continent of red tape, Germany,
happy Germany. is its crown and glory.
The Vatican statue of LAGOON ana ms
children is the fatherland sympoi' Out
instead of being crushed by the monstrous
serpents CT Virgil. Germany's sxty MI
lions are choked and stranSled IN III
exorable coils CT ruddy tape
Not without a struggle. A silent pu.
desperate war RACES here as an W.
Europe. On one side stands the pFac-
ticaI man who runs his affairs by te'e
phone and scribbles with stuopy i'ehcii
in a greasy note book. Against MN Is
the bureaucratic official whose way %
working is to fill up needless realms 80
foolscap in Ciceronian style ana WIZ
apocaivptic impressiveness. In the III
terests of his class the bus ness man
sometimes tries to get into TIE auiii - ~
;ration Sometimes he succeeus'
years ago, in despair at gettins d . nc"
who would free his colonial mlAlslIS ~
red tape acknowledgements, the KAISER ilauc
chief Of that department the op So,
American-trained Jew, Bernhard Del
berg, son of a poor Journalist, a''u ai,n ',It
the first minister of Germany "no 80
not write Doctor Jurls pe,ole .,n,
name. The red tape wave receaeu' me.
- nana hacE with a rush, and now IL
has swept the hated Dernbefg ofch ~
the cbscurity from which ne ciih ,. af
was a business man. INIT was 40 ~
Tense. Nobody understood nun ne
derstood nobody, and, though ne =;
excellently with the GENIAL hueio", a.
case became hopeless when BueipT me-
way for Chancellor Bethmahf- non W. w.
a surer-uuint essential bureautia'' W.
could no more live without req tape 'i'"h
q geranium without red blossoms
Every business man in Germany at
tacks the red tape administration. The
great organizers of business, the ballins
of the Hamburg American line, the GWln-
ners of the colossal Deutsche Bank ana
the late Herr Krupp of Essen all said
the same thing. The administrator, they
agreed Is honest scrupulous and schol-
arly, but hopelessy inefficient because all
initiative and brain are killed by eternal
copying and signing of magniloquent
papers, written in style that dates
from Frederick the Great OF these
sharp critics the latest is Herr Won Gwin-
ner president of the Deutsche Bank
who in the Prussian house of lords ruth
lessly exposed the incapable procedure TO
which Prussa's finances owe their evil
plight The Turkish per cents he
showed are little lower than Prussia S;
the Italian and even Spanish loans stand
higher than those of the rich German
empire. The way in which loans were
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

Keeper of Teltow, handed TO the police as
property found. a brass silverad ring,
of estimated value of > pfennigs''
Il cent?. The ring had never been claim
cd 1t transpires." concluded the ad-
vertisement. that Herr Albrecht Schmed-
ding is dead but if his heirs apply for
the ring in legal form. and pay the cost
of this advertisement, the ring will be de-
livered to them or TO their authorized
legal representatives..
Unofficial Germans smiled It this con-
scient Gus way Of doing business, but Off
cial Germans did not. They respected
the honesA police for preserving Tie ring
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

most papers are handled and read by
from sixty to seventy offici ais. that
an order to fill up rut in g state main
road often takes year before it is
passed finally. AS simple dockets au
thorizing the expenditure of. say $50.
make their way through the instances"
they have to have leaves pasted on to
them in order to provide space for the
innumerable signatures and stamps And
this complicated system does not dimin-
ish robbery, but rather fosters 1t, for
the thief usually dies of Old age before
his guilt is traced.
Russians call this amazing system
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-07

and an ak. He is the god of death and
destruction and also the god of asceticism
and dancing. in the latter manifestation
being somewhat like Bacchus.
The Hindus have their sacred books,
upon which their religions are based:
Some of these are about the Oldest OF
religious manuscripts. They are known
as the Vedas. and are published in San
skirt. There are four Fedas, the most
important of which is the Rig Veda.
This contains over 1000 hymns addressed
to the gods, and commemoratlng the
march of the Aryan race from kabul to
the Punjab. And then there is the Sauna
Veda which is largely taken up with
the ceremonies of the religion; the Ath-
arva Veda, composed chiefly of incanta-
lions, and the Yajur Veda, the publlca-
ton of which the government is trying
to suppress on account of its obscenlty.
Connected with these is the code of Manu-,
which gives the laws and customs Oh the
HinduS and is generally obeyed today
There are also religious and phllosophl-
cal works written by the Brahmans, ana
trines through their religious journals
and newspapers. They are advocating
the more strict observance of their re-
ligion, insisting on the custom OF infant
marriages and upon the Abandonment OF
the remarriage of widows. There are
others who are advocating reforms more
along the lines of our civilization.
1t is in the code of Manu- that we find
set down the four great castles which
have existed among the Hindus for thou
sands of years. These are the main di-
visions of castles which form such a big
element in the situation of today, al
though there are thousands of minor di-
visions, The first and highest caste is
that of the Brahmans or priests. These
men are the Levites of the natives, but
they have a higher position than the
Levites held in Judea. They are sup
posed to have sprung originally from the
mouth of Brahma and were enjoined to
study, teach and receive aims. By the
right of birth they are the lords of crea-
ton and the rest must support them
There are something like twenty millions
of them in India, and they are the vam-
pires. of every community. They suck
the blood OF their fellows, who are bound
to support them. They bless, curse, teach
and govern the ether Hindu castles. They
are the authority upon all matters, re-
ligious and social They are the brains
of the Hindus and are among the leaders
in the great unrest of today. They hold
their position on account of the reverence
and sanctity with which they are re-
garded, and for this reason they object
to our civilization as the ruination of
caste. They preach against railroads,
because in them all grades of society