The mirror., 1919-08-21
|NDIA'S bazaar days have
long since passed without
hope for any return of
their former glory. Yet

NcSSXSlU long since passed without
1SNNa hope for any return of
A-AI their former glory. Yet
the visitor, in search of novelty,
may still be very we'll satisfied
with the results of the effort he
must make to see what remains of
the curious life in those places
which are different from every
thing In this land; their nearest
parallel being the French market
in New Orleans, or a county fair.
The stranger to India should
take the precaution to secure the
services of a guide and physical
protector of a thoroughly compe-
tent interpreter, one who is con-
versant with at least half a dozen
of the numerous dialects spoken
in lndia's commercial circles, aud
who--when it comes to buying or
rejecting-knows at glance "a
hawk from herneshaw" because,
as decidedly cynical Englishman
said, 'Nine-tenths of the stuff dis
played in those Indian bazaars are
spurious, and the remainder utterly
worthless rubbish" An exagger-
alton, of course. yet it is hard
matter to find the few gems that
may be there; and, at any rate. if
the purchasable inanimate is lack
ing. the almost endless variety of
the recumbent or animate human
denizens is a rich reward for the
fatiguing hours in a bazaar.
1t is great pity that civilization
is so very inconsiderate toward the
picturesque, the stranger, and the
racially attractive Tin spite of its
dirt which are so different from
the life and the people we know
and are so tired of, their inartistic
dirt especially. that we often rush
off to the antipodes to find some
thing artistic and interesting.
When we fail in our search, we
are apt to abuse the writer's who
tell us-not what they really did
see, but what they had predeter-
mined they were to see.
1t is not many years since that
the bazaar at Delhi, to take at
random one of the many, was truly
a wonderful place. 1t occupied a
large extent of ground, covered
with all manner of ramshackle
buildings, the ground floors of
which we're open stalls. There
were few fairly broad thorough
fares which traversed the section
from side to side in serpentine
course, but the really interesting
and attractive shops we're reached
by many narrow, winding lanes,
forming veritable labyrinth, into
which the unwary stranger who
ventured alone was quickly lost;
and when he betrayed his misfor-
tune by act or word, was sure to
be pounced upon by flock of hu-
man vultures bent upon getting
his last rupee in exchange for their
wares, and heartless as to whether
or not he got back to the meager
civilization of Delhi's then wretch
ed hotel.
In the main avenues there we're
shall we say canals, or streams, or
ordinary ditchesg Well. there
was something in whichever we
call them that possessed the mo-
tion of liquid, and there was one,
or perhaps two. rows of discour-
aged-looking trees. But in the
narrow alleys there was no disguis-
ing the fact that those bitches were
simply open drains, usually so tor
pid in their flow that the stencil
was almost overpowering, and the
visitor from abroad wondered how
any human being could breathe the
fetid air all day and all night as
complacently as did the bazaar
denizens.
Nevertheless those were the days
when it was quite possible to pick