The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-10-24
THE AFTERGLOW
Drive faster, Govindra!

Drive faster, GOVlndra!
"Padre-sahib, this is very bad horse
He going all the quickly he can"
He must go faster. Ten minutes
makes all the difference. Two rupees
'bakshish' if you get to the hospital
by shutdown remember"
Govindra leant forward and belabor-
ed the shaggy back of the inadequate
brown pOny-a mere "baZartot
tween the shafts of the "jutka,' with
resounding Whacks of his tough bam-
boo-sWitch. OF the ten miles between
the Mount and Manimir, four yet re-
manned to be covered, and the sun was
near it's setting. After all, the pony
was only hired one, and could tell
no tales; and the Padre-sahib himself
he who was ever merciful to horses
had hidden him hasten. And two
rupees, over and above his fare, was
az great sum- Again Govindra leant
forward, and the pony, startled by a
couple of cientifcally-placed cuts,
started forward at a gallop, to the
accompaniment of his drivers shouts
Father Burke, inside the "jutka' set
his teeth and pulled his big pith he'll
met over his eyes, bracing his Shout
ders and feet against opposite walls
of the conveyance. The sound of the
blows sickened him, for he had not
been long enough in India to grow
used to the systematic cruelty shown
by the natives to the animals Still,
hot hot n boo oh n
be numerically beaten than that a
sick man should die without the Sacra-
ments, and the message had been
urgent. There was no time to be
lost, and this was the only way He
drew his rosary from it's little purse
he had begun the first decade a vio-
lent jolt sent the beads flying from
his fingers, and it was with some diff
Guilty that he found them among the
hay on which he lay.
A "jutka" is a primitive conveyance.
Above two large wheels is balanced
rough floor of wood, over which, is
arched a light bamboo framework,
matched with palm-matting. The floor
is strewn with hay, and on this the
| passenger sits, or lies, as best he can.
The driver is perched in the opening
in front, his feet on the shafts. The
whole is as picturesque as it is uncom-
| Portable. But, as Father Burke knew,
a good ''jutka" pony with a skilful
driver can easily make ten miles an
hour with the light swaying cart; and
| Govindra was the best driver in the
bazaar Bruises were of very little ac-
count. They would surely reach the
hospital at Manimir by sunset
The winding sandy road, ankle-deep
in thick red dust, was almost desert
ed, so far from the cantonment, for
it was not the highroad to Madras
1t lay across the limitless palmy fat
ness of the great plain of Southern
India, which stretches inland from
the Malabar surf-beach to the foot
of the Nilgiri hills; the India of old
fashioned, early-Victorian children
story-books-not the tourists, not the
novelists' India. Not the India of the
Mutiny, either, with its terrible, his
i LOAAS 1uIh-
now. This is the country of the old
East India Company-of Clive-of
half-forgotten eighteenth century bat
ties between England and France. If
it has not the picturesqueness, the
historic interest of the central and
northwest provinces of Bombay and
Bengal, the very soul of India still
breathes here, revealing itself in less
ideal but more realistic form. Here,
though there may be less to see, there
is at least as much to feel.
So, at least, Father Burke always
felt, though he had spent less than a
year in the Madras Presidency. AS
soon as he could manage to do so he
promised himself to visit the famous
| picture of Our Lady and the Divine
Child, painted, the legends tells US,
by one of the Three Kings at Beth
lehem, and left by him on his Jour-
ney home to India at the little Coro-
mandel seaport of Calicut. It was not
two days journey from Manimir, of
which station he was at present the