Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-02
MYSTERY OF MUTINY.
Cause of War in India Never Has
Been Explained to the Satisfaction
of Historians.

just before the Indian mutiny broke
out native policeman entered the vii
laga of Oudh, carrying two chupatles,
or cakes, and ordered the person who
took them To bake 10 mere and distrib-
ute two each to the five nearest vii
lagos.
In few hours the whole countryside
was alive with natives rlinning from
place 10 place with these cakes.
Far and wide the mysterious craze
sped filling the minds of millions Of
natives. and of not few Europeans,
with a nameless dread.
None know what it portended and
the most extraordinary theories We're
advanced.
Next somebody suggested that the
chupaties were being used to convey
seditious MESA ges; that they were. in
fact wheaton envelopes, the letters
being inside Forthwith many thous-
ands of cakes We're seized and broken
open, but as nothing was ever found
incloscd in them, this theory had to
be abandoned as untenable.
Thereupon public opinion among the
Europeans Veered round 10 the opposite
quarter People laughed, and said that
il was Just a silly disposed Pc rSon or
persons, entered upon perhaps for the
purpose of creating uneasiness, or even
alarm, but with no more serious ul-
terror motive behind it.
Others, however. read into it a more
sinister meaning, recalling the fact
that q similar mysterious distribution
of cakes had been made in Madras
some 50 years before. and had been
followed by The mutiny of Nellur, To-
cal affair which aimed nevertheless at
the destruction of all the Europeans in
the Presidency.
Next some one, more learned than
the average Anglo-Indian in Oriental
lore, called attention to the fact that
five centuries previously a similar dis
tribution of cakes in China led TO the
great uprising which overthrow the
dynasty of the Moguls.
Meanwh the natives circulated
their own theories. One was that II
was all IA dodge of their British con-
uuercrs. who had caused bone dust to
be mixed with the -four from Whlch
| the cakes were made, in order 10 de-
file the recipients and destroy their
caste.
Another similar lying legend was to
the effect that the chupaties had been
ordered by the Government 10 be sent
to every village and town throughout
the length and breadth of India as an
intination that for the future every
one may be forced to eat one food and
profess one faith.
Meanwhile the authorities made
frantic efforts to stop the further dis
tribution of the cakes. They might
lust rs well have tried to stop the
wind from blowing. Hundreds of men
running about with chupaties in their
hands were arrested. but thousands
more swarmed over the country in
their stead.
Europeans, too, began to figure as
The recipients of the cakes, much TO
their annoyance and mystffcation,
They would be found in the most un-
expected and inaccessible places.
one lady, for instance, found one IN
her level case, which was always kept
locked and to which no one but her
self she could have sworn had ever
had access. Officers discovered them
| in their sleeping apartments, magis-
trates in locked drawers in their prl-
yate Offices 1T was all very disquiet-
| ing.
The cakes are described as about the
size and thickness of n ships biscuit
made from the eoarsest flour and un-
marked with any stamp, or design OF
any kind Many millions must have
| been made. Yet apparently not sim
| gle one was preserved
Indeed men soon had something else
| to occupy their minds. The mutinv
| broke out and India was drenched in
| blood.
After t was suppressed. however,
| added Importance attached itself TO
| tho distribution of the cakes just prior
| to it's commencement, and the most
| painstaking efforts were made to faith
| on the mystery. But they were all IN
| vain
| At the same time it may safely be
assumed that not one native in hum
| DIR I'd, probably, among the millions
| who received cakes, understood the
| real purport of the dread message they
were meant to convey.-Philadelphi
| Public Ledger.
| Michael Bryne, Baltimore actor, has