Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
INDIAN PRESS BOX"
HAS OWN STORY
Lahore, Puniab Capital,
Known as "Date Line"
for Oriental News.

Lahore, India, where the All-India
Nationalistic Congress is meeting, has
O local story. Lahore is the press box
Of North India, but seldom has much
% say about itself.
If a glacier breaks In the upper
Indus River, releasing q deluge of
water that wipes out thousands of
native homes, the news Is dispatched
from Lahore. II Afghan bandits way
lay a sufficient number Of caravans
Peshawar might get into the date line,
out more frequently Lahore is the
date-line city. Both the Indus River
and Afghanistan border are more than
400 miles from Lahore.
Crossroads of North India.
Lahore" according to a bulletin
rom the National Geographic Society,
is the capital of Punjab State, and
one OF the important crossroads of
India
Not many curious travellers are
FOUND there, for the city is of the
beaten paths of tourist travel Most
tourists visit Calcutta and Bombay and
perhaps the interior cities between
them, but Lahore, lying about ZOO miles
northwest of Delhi, is a bit out of the
way. Yet trains from important South
the city; railroads from the foothills
Of the western Himalaya Mountains
touch it; there is a line from Lahore
to the Afghan border on the north;
and from the west come trains from
Karacht. popular landing field for Asia
Europe aviators.
Elephants Garry Sightseers.
Lahore is about as old as the Chris
Sian era and in some old, walled por-
lions OF the city there has not been
much change since the city was first
built. Some of the streets are so mar
row that 'sightSeers' who engage ele-
plants for q tour watch the natives
scurry into doorways and, as the ele-
plants pass, fiatten themselves against
the walls of unattractive houses that
dank these byways.
Every house has, at least one in
closed balcony or bay window and no
two adjoining houses seem to have
them protruding from the same floor.
And no two balconies are the same;
size. This feature of Lahore house
construction, and the further fact that
Lahores. early builders apparently gave
no thought to an even building line,
make the native thoroughfare tumble
OF uneven masonry and wood.
Children Are Beggars.
'HThere are few women on the streets
Of Lahore, but no matter how many
windows a house has, nearly all of
them frame a bronzed, feminine face
Some OF the women wear Shawls, others
adorn themselves with trinketS-stone-
1ncrusted discs pierce the left sides Of
their noStrils, beads nearly cover the
bright waists and bronzed necks Of
the wearerS, and earrings dangle from
the ear lobes to the shoulders.
They look down upon q gayly clad,
gurging mass of humanity-some men
with turbans 50 large that their wearers
appear top-heaSy-others with skull
caps. They see beggars, some mere
children OF z and 8 years, and older
ones, who move only when an elephant,
. wagon drawn by a shaggy donkey,
or high-wheeled cart, forces them to
withdraw their outStretched legs. The
beggars' pitiful professional pleading,
the yell OF the voting native raga-
muf1ns, whose only playground is in
front Of their own doorways, and the
unmelodious cry Of numerous peddlers,
echo through the. narrow byways.
Industries Hidden.
"At the bazaars, the travellers min
gle with a colorful horde who watch
crafty merchants drive home sales of
hammered metal ware and earthen YES
SCAo "a OH SHAPES ana SIZES, JSWSlIy ana
many other products of local manufac-
ture. Incidentally. tour of Lahore re-
vealS little manufacturing activity, but
within the scmber walls thanking some
of the city's streets are produced fine
carpets, leather goods, pottery and
metal ware. Cotton and -four mills,
mineral water bottling works and soap
factories employ many natives.
'The foreign quarter of Lahore is a
bit of Europe out of place. The city's
100000 inhabitants include many for
eign officials, and British soldiers are
Quartered there. You may hire a Eu-
ropean-made automobile and ride
through wide boulevardS past fine gov
eminent buildings and spacious parks.
On the promenades Paris and London
fashions predominant. and In the clubs
and theaterS the Orient Is nearly
BANKED from the foreigners minds ex-
cept, perhaps, for the presence of few
high-caste natives.
wealthy, Rayly-clad Indians also
ride in European automobiles. but some
use the coach and four The horses,
drivers, footmen and carriages are
adorned with bright-colored, Rold-taS-