Connecticut western news., 1920-08-05
INDIA, THE LAND
 AND ITS CUSTOMS
Letters From a Former
 Canaan High School Teacher


 i. Teacher
 Through the kindness of friends of Miss Ruth Manchester, of Win sted, at one time teacher in the Canaan high school, we are per- mitted to share with the readers of The News, her description of the journey across the continent, the Pacific Ocean and SO on to her des- tination, Lucknow, India. Miss Manchester is a teacher in the Isabella Thoburn College for Wom- en at that place.
 She writes that she went north from Winsted to Montreal, then proceeded to Vancouver, via the c. P. R. R. At dawn the next day after leaving Field, we had passed through the mountains proper, but for hours we were travelling through the beautiful Fraser Canyon, where the railroad is built on a narrow ledge of land with a high, steep slope above and precipice below. We had three rainy days in Vancou- yer, then at noon on Thursday, De- cember 18th, we sailed. The next two weeks are hardly a pleasant memory, we took the northern route which was cold and rough.
 January first, we reached Yeko- hama just as the sun was setting. Beautiful, snow-clad Fiji was suff- used with lavender light. To my great surprise, a friend from Tokyo, Hartford School of Missions stu dent, had come down to meet me and I went home with her that night, but going on to Kobe to re- embark, January third. The over land trip gave me splendid oppor- tunity to see the agriculture of the country. / Japan is fascinating land; found it hard to believe that it was all true as I rode along the street in Yokohama in a rickshaw and passed the toy-like shops and picturesque men and women.
 "At Hong Kong, which we reached on the twelfth, we had quite a long wait between boats. spent a blissful four days in Canton with a college friend, who is teaching in a Presbyterian Girls School. saw something of Canton city, though it would take weeks to exhaust the possibilities of that interesting old place.
 "The next boat took us only as far as Singapore, and there we had several days wait between boats. It was so hard to get passage to Cal cutta that we finally took a boat bound for Madras and went thence by rail to Calcutta. It was the eleventh of February when we reached Calcutta, to stay only a few hours. The next day about three thirty I reached Lucknow, and found at the station a group of tea chers from the College to welcome me. I arrived in the season of flowers and for a month we had an abundance of them.
 "Our compound at Lal Bagh is not large enough to afford much open space, but what we do have is very pleasant. The building itself IS the usual type in the Orient, a fiat-roof- Su1 LWO-oIOLy W1Lh SiLNiACA verandas on both floors. These serve as our corridors and I enjoy the necessity of being out of doors ss much.
 "There were ten other Americans at Lal Bagh when 1 arrived, all but two of them connected with ths College, and all pleasant and con 1 ,o1 xo,,% 4o xry0,rI> 4hn .,lr after I arrived, for though it was the end of the year and too close to examination period for a new person ordinarily to take up classes, the need demanded unusual measures.
 "This coming year, which opens July 9, I shall have class in Greek history, Roman history, and three Bible classes, taking in the entire College and Normal school.
 "We had an unusually cool spring, not until the middle of April was there much intense heat. After that the thermometer climbed to no and above, but it was very dry heat and not so impossible as one might think
 "I've not mentioned my reaction to my Indian students, could tell much about them, but just now I'll merely say that they are most lov- able and I thoroughly enjoy the work and contact wfh them.
 "We closed the last of April, and May 1 we arrived here in Mussoores for the summer vacation. It was an exceedingly interesting trip, 8 1 A