The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1920-04-29
VISITS NlNOI ENR0UTE
HONE FROM india
o. J. Smith, Goodrich Tire Sales.
man, Tells of the Queer Gus
toms of Fanatics in East.

W. q. OHlCH, VI OdH FdHclScO, Cal.
who is connected with the sales de-
partment Of the Goodrich Tire Co.,
is spending few days in the city
visiting at the home of his mother,
Mrs. c. H. Passenger. This is Mr..
Smiths first visit in Minot.
He is enroute home from an eight
months business tour of Europe and
Asia, having visited many of the more
important cities of the two continents
in the interest of his company. He
spent three months in India and re-
lated some interesting stories of that
far distant land to an Independent
representative
The Britisher appears to get along
fairly we'll in India. The Britain is
colonizer, but theAmerican, never.
That is no country for white man,
Mr.. Smith says. After a white man
lives there for three or four years,
he is inclined to become indolent.
The sanitary conditions are very bad
and one is apt to become i'll from ma
laria, cholera, dysentery or typhoid
fever. He saw no modern plumbing
from the time he reached Gibraltar
until he arrived at Manila. He did
not see a bath tub or a toilet in any
hotel. In China, the old Shanghai
jars are still in use for bathing.
There are 35O,O00,O0O people in In
dia and natives are fighting religious
fanatics. Mr.. Smith says they will
never become civilized. The East In
dian who does receive little educa-
ton, dons the white mans clothes but
wears them in very slovenly man
ner. The East Indian who tries to
adopt the white mans manner of liv-
ing is regarded as sort of turn
coat and not much good, anyway.
Missionaries, Mr.. Smith says, are do
ing what they can for the natives,
but the work is slow. The East In
dian does not have to worry about
what he will wear for the climate is
so warm. All he needs is to get out
and fight for something to eat.
Little native girls appear on the
streets without stitch of clothing
until they are twelve or fourteen years
old and when they grow up, about all
they wear is narrow cloth about
their body.
Speaking of the Hula-hula dancers,
he says the natives do not execute
this dance in half so effective a man.
ner as the American girls, who APP
pear to have learned it with all the
variations.
There are countless thousands of
fanatics in India. He saw one old fell
low who had gone thru life with his
hands clenched so tightly that the
finger nails had grown right out thru
the back of the hands. Another had
gone with his arms up in the air for
so long that he cannot put them down.
Mr.. Smith says there are 10000
automobiles in India, 2.0O0,I in Singa-
pore, 1000 in the Federated Malay
states, 1000 in French Indo China,
and 5000 in the Dutch East Indies.
Motor trucks are coming into use rap
idly in India, displacing the old pic
turesque two-wheeled carts. Nine out
of every ten autos in India are Amer
lean make.
The Standard Oil Co., has stations
located in the principal cities of India.
Gasoline sells for rs cents a, gallon
and the Standard Oil Co., has to ship
it across and compete with the oil
that is produced by the oil wells of
Asia.
81 sort Of became spoiled by my
stay in India. Everybody has boy
to wait on him there. I didn't so
much as put a collar button in my
shirt while l was in India. The call
of the east is "boy." For SIS month
you get your boy. He dresses and
undresses you, bathes you and gets
your shaving apparatus ready for
you. He is always at your beck and
call.
The high cost of living has struck
India and every other section of Asia.
is costs him more to live in Singa-
pore than in San Francisco. Cloth
ing is cheap in India however. Peo-
pie wear the white suits mainly, which
cost four or five dollars suit.
There is one thing that it cheap in
India and that is whiskey. Johnny
Walker costs $500 for a quart bottle
and Three Star Hennessy from $3.50
to $500 quart. 1t is made in Eng
land and shipped to India duty free.