The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-02

their meeting place Is doubly sa- cred. The mystical Indian mind finds still a third reason for holi- ness: It is believed by the pilgrims that the Saraswati, a river which is swallowed up by the sands south west of Punjab, emerges at the junction point of the Jumna and Cages.
 Both the Ganges and the Jumna are coffee colored streams, heavily laden with silt. At low water in late winter large expanse of dusty sand Is exposed below the Allaha- bad fort which stands on the bluff overlooking the confluence. It is on this beach that the millions of pill grims assembled recently.
 The Indian police have their hands full during the great re- ligious fair. or Kumbh Mela. All vehicles are excluded from the river plain, and all efforts concen- trated on maintaining order among the multitude of men, women and children that move about in the dust slip on the wet clay near the stream banks. and attain merit by bathing in the murky waters.
 A torrid sun beats down, and to screen its rays little shelters of rushes have been erected on the sands Under these sit all manner of people wearing a minimum of clothing. Among them are holy men, their bodies smeared with gray coats of ashes. Groups of idols are set up that the faithful may con- tribute coins. Among the crowds go men carrying water skins. sprin- kling the water in an effort to lay the dust that millions of bare feet stir up.
 The Kumbh Mela is a mecca for moneymakers. and the principal thoroughfare is lined with mat-shed shops for the sale of sacrificial brassware, tiny brass idols, holy ber- ries made Into dark necklaces, and shining brass bottles, zoned with mellow-tinted copper, in which holy water can be taken to remote parts of India by credulous people. Here and there one finds men with small furnaces full of heated pitch, seal- ing the water vessels so that not an atom of holiness can escape.
 Allahabad is old. In the en- closure of the fort Is a pillar erect ed to Asoka. the great Buddhist king, during the Third century, B. c. It may have been moved to the spot taken. however, so 1t is not con- elusive evidence that a town ex- isted on the site of Allahabad dur ing Asoka's reign. The first town known to history on this site was Prayag. about which a Chinese traveller wrote in HOO A. D. The Hln- dus still call the town Prayag. '.the place of sacrifice" It received the name by which 1t Is now known to the world from It's Mohammedan conquerors In 1875.
 Singapore a Great Free Port.
 Singapore is an island 27 miles long by IA wide and just misses be- ing the southernmost point of the continent of Asia by a half mile water channel. It is at the funnel point of the Strait of Malacca which extends between the Malay penin- sula and the island of Sumatra, the great water highroad between India and China.
 Little more than hundred years ago the island. owned by the sul- tan of Johore on the nearby main- land. was deserted jungle save for a little fishing village. Ships in the China trade passed it by as they passed many another jungle shore 1; the only ports of call in that region of the world were those of the Dutch islands of Sumatra and Java. But these ports took a big toll in fees. and Sir Stamford Rallies, an official of the East India company. began to dream of q free British port that would facilitate trade. In 1919 he obtained the seemingly worthless island of Singapore for his company for a small fee. De velopments soon proved him a prophet. for within two years the little trading center he established had . population of 10000. It was 1872 before the British government consented to take an interest in the place.