The Penn's Grove record., 1922-01-20
WORKING IN INDIA
Penns Grove Boy Helping To Build
Steel Plant

]
Tatanagar, India, Dec. 1, 1921.
Penns Grove Record.
Dear Sir:-I sailed from New York
September 10, 1921. Nineteen davs
later arrived at Port Said. Africa,
That is at the entrance of the Suez
Canal, and discharged cargo. II
thought it was one of the dirtiest
places | ever saw. We left there the
mex day. Two days later we stopped
at For Sudan, which is on the same
coast. We discharged cargo also.
mere was no town there, and no
pace TO go. 1t was terribly hot going
through the Red Sea. We had four
lays sailing and arrived at a coaling
station In Arabia. 1t is a great way
they have coaling ships in this coun-
Try. They carry all the coal in bas-
kets. They loaded five hundred tons
that way in about fourteen hours.
Then we sailed one more day and
arrived in Alden, Arabia. Of course,
We had to go ashore to see the sights.
1t was awful hot, so we went into a
MOTEL for refreshments. They had no
electric fans, so they had two BOYS
at each end of the room. Hanging
over each table was something like
carpet about four feet square. They
were attached with a rope. One boy
would pull them one way and the other
boy would pull them back again. That
was called a fan.
After we saw all the sights we went
back aboard ship and started for Bonn
bay, India. We were about four hours
out when one of the crew fell into the
hold and broke his back. We had to
take the ship back to Alden. When we
arrived they would not let the captain
put him ashore, so we had to turn
about again and head for Bombay, the
second time. We arrived there on
18th Of October and stayed there in
bombay two days to see the town.
very nice places were viewed.
We started on our 1000 mile Journey
across India by rail. 1t took two
days to make the trip. The accommo-
datlons are not very good. There are
two compartments in a car, divided in
the centre, and supposed to be four in
each compartment. When you get in
there you cannot go elsewhere as they
are like our box cars in the States. If
you want to go to the next car you
nave to wait until the train stops and
then you have to jump out and go
hunt something to eat or else 90 hun
CRY. | would as leave go hungry as
to eat some of the chuck they hand
you. One time we stopped and | was
looking at the rails on the other track
and thought they were awful wide
apart. | got my six foot rule and got
off and measured. 1t measured Just
five feet six inches. That is the
standard in India.
We arrived on the nineteenth of
October at Tatanagar. There was an
automobile to take us further in the
jungle. When we arrived we were
greeted with hand shakes, of course.
| knew nearly all the boys that were
here before. | came over and of
course the bottle was passed around
and l didn't see any n refuse, so you
know bottles of real stuff are scarce in
America.
My place was all ready for me when
| arrived; bed all made and table set,
but the other five had to dig out and
find quarters. This is one great coun-
try, any way. The climate is fine
here, right now, just like Georgia in
winter.
1 have just gotten over the fever.
Haven't gone to work yet, but shall re-
port next Monday. l had a tempera-
ture of LOG, so you can guess l had
the limit. l am a lite nervous.
We have been very fortunate; only
one man killed and our general man
ayers wife died. All bodies have to
be buried in twelve hours after death,
so they don't have much time for
wakes.
We will have one of the largest steel
plants in the world here when it is
completed. 1t will take us until 1925
to complete. We have such poor
labor that progress is very slow. You
can't expect much out of them as they ,
only get from IL to 80 cents for eight
hours. The steel gets so hot that a
white mar cannot lay his hand on it.
Those natives don't wear any shoes !
nor clothes, only a cloth covering their
trunk. They are more like animals
than anything else. The women do
nearly all the hard work. They do
all the digging for concrete founda- !;
tons. The men fill the baskets with
dirt and rock and the women put the
baskets on their heads and carry them
out of the hole. They ven have
little girls and boys from eight to
ten years old carrying baskets of
unbroken rock on their heads entirely
nude. The rock they use to mix con-
crete with is all broken by hand. They
sit out in the field all day and break
rock with a little hammer for about
IL annas, that is about Is cents. Of
course it costs them little to live. They
only eat rice and build their own
houses out of grass and mud. Just
like our muskrats at home. They are
just like a monkey. They are good
climbers, but when they climb to
where the work is they can't do any
thing. I have my troubles. | have
about forty of them. They can't I'M I
derstand one word of English and l
can speak very little Hindoo, but hope
to learn soon. We have very nice !
quarters here. Our bungalow stands
in the middle of an acre lot and sui
rounded with vegetables and flowers.
have also about twenty banana
trees in our yard. There are three of