Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1906)
j- v -r-rr " - sjm .5T"r3npw ifP5yri5raF? mmy- n V P IV , ry are Indians, Ills collectors arc Indians, his school teachers are Indians, and he has an Indian -army. I had the pleasuro of meeting one of the council and tho head of the school system of the state, and found them raon of fine appearance and high culture. The illiteracy in his state compares fa- vorably with that in tho states under British administration, and the graduates from the Ma haraja's college compete successfully in the ex aminations with the graduates from other col leges. Tiiey have at Jalpore an art school in which all kinds of manual training arc taught, and the sale-room of this school gives accurate information ds to tho capacity of the natives for Industrial development. We found here the only native pottery of merit that. we noticed in the country. The city of Jaiportrwas laid out in 1728 and is one of the most attractive cities in India. The main streets are a hundred and ten feet wide, the buildings are Oriental in style, most of them two stories in height some three and are all painted the same shade of pink, with white trim mings and green shutters. The entire city is sup plied with water and the streets are lighted by gas. All in all, Jaipore makes a favorable im pression upon the visitor. Some six miles away is the ancient city of Amber, the capital of the state until Jaipore was established. It is reached by a ride on elephant back, the only ride of this kind that we have yet had. There is a beautiful palace at Amber which gives some idea of the luxury- in which the Indian rulers lived. We returned from this trip late in the evening when the peacocks were going to roost, and nearly eyery tree contained - one or more of these gaudy-plumaged fowls. These were apparently wild, and their numbers and beauty recalled the fact that the peacoclc is India s royal bird;. and it is not an inappro priate symbol of the pomp and magnificence of the Oriental kings. I might digress here to say l?L r?Spect f0r 1Ife taught in the Hindu scriptures has filled India to excess with useless Birds and animals. The crows and kites "are a nuisance. It is no uncommon thing to see a vendor of cakes and sweetmeats bearing his basket on his head, and waving a stick above it fofnwMe,hf lllG rdB Sometimes an attentat biidB hil?Venr a?d P1'0tects WnTfrfii the heir' ton f it0 f a ! precaions they' get tneir toll. The crows often come to tho doors and windows of the hotels' and inquire wSr otZ, aJl?,ny, ,f0,0d l0 spare' and sparrows and ?rnm taJVibir(1SA .CCaSi0nally Slean CHimbS S2L ? Iab e; Jaipore we saw myriads" of piglons being fed in the streets, and monkeys they are everywhere. The jungles of the tropical countries are not more thronged with them than the road sides of some parts of India. About naif vay between Jaipore and Bombay they were especially numerous, and as we rode along on the train we saw them singly, in groups and in mass meetings. Here, too, we saw herds of ante lope scarcely frightened by the train. Attention has frequently been called to the fact ti : th2 Hindu's aversion to meat has a beartig upon he famine question, millions of cattle dyins Sf Bter ZnToi lnried,earl,er' h7lnfve0fsaved uiousands of human beings from starving - A night's ride from Jaipore brought m tn Abu Road from which by pony cart i SSi PJ fl gas, we ascended to Mt. Abu i slxtSn u The loiimov i nii ' slxteen miles away. mandy SL tse'Tt SuVT centuries and ihp iw eleveni and twelfth than five mllltoSa f i n f tUem C0St more Had reached a Itmt' ShW,s that trade days. One of tS tomw" o? posltlon In those brothers and the guff lL ?fM ,built b two these brothers, tiring of thSr a traditio that bury it, but on aiSSn? ft mouoy declded to more, and c6nsiSgS, Ktt "W fUnd built this temple The hiSimJS m tbo gods, JoUd, Ve'o a Meze 0Pf eoSn"eS;, tIle tranla or Sonkovc! t ' ze r seoso, another of tigers bloomek Tl.o variety la e, less m?JV mWl perfect, w&le tto'XM'fSSS The Commoner. and ceilings differ so much from each other, the arrangement is such that they do not seem in congruous, but form a harmonious whole. The Mohammedan conquerors mutilated some of the figures because of their hatred of idolatry, but when under Lord Curzon's administration the work of restoration was begun, it was impossible to find marble like the original. Around these temples are numerous shrines, each containing a seated figure very much re sembling Buddha. The Jains are a sect of the Hindus, and their temples are renowned for their beauty. This temple is visited by a large number of pilgrims every year, some,' of whom were chanting their prayers while we were' there. Another night's ride and we wer6 in Bombay and what a luxury to find a hotel constructed upon the American plan. The Tai Mahal is the finest hotel in the Orient and wopld be a credit to any city in our country. It was built by Mr. Tata, a rich Parsee, who planned it more from public than from private considerations. We found the plague increasing in virulence, three hundred having died in the city the day before we arrived. Bombay has suffered terribly from this scourge, twenty-four per cent having perished from it in the last few days. Two years ago the American consul, Hon. William T. Fee, lost his daughter and came near losing his wife by this dread disease, and two of the European consuls have recently had to leave their homes because of deaths among1 their native servants. With so many dying in a single city (and, ten thousand aweek in the entire country), India would seem an unsafe place to visit, and yet one would not know except for the newspapers that an epidemic was raging, so little does it affect business or social life. There is now in use a system of inoculation which promises to ma terially lessen the mortality from this disease. A serum is prepared in which the venom of ser pents is the chief ingredient, and this hypodermi cally administered has been found almost a sure preventive. While,. tne-pfryflioianrare 'employ ing this remedy, the rat-catchers are also busy, and abouta. thousand rodents are captured per day, itfcaving been demonstrated that the rat notfronly spreads the disease, but carries a 'flea "that imparts it by its bite. . Bombay is the Manchester of India, and the smoke stacks of its many cotton factories give to the city a very business like appearance. These mills are- largely owned by Indians and operated by Indian capital. On an island near Bombay is one of the most frequented of the rock-hewn temples, called the Elephanta Caves. This temple is chiseled out of the solid rock, great pillars being left td support the roof. It is about one hundred and thirty feet square by seventeen in height and contains a number of figures of heroic size, These figures are carved from the walls and represent various gods and demons. The Portu guese Christians, several centuries ago, showed their contempt for these gods of stone by firing their cannon into the temple. While some of the pillars were battered down and some of the carv ings mutilated, enough now remains to show the impressiveness of this ancient place of worship. No one can visit Bombay without becoming interested in a religious sect, the members of which are known as Parsees. They are few in numbers, probably not exceeding a hundred thou sand in the world, more than half of whom live in or near Bombay. Theirs is the religion of Zoroaster, and they contest with the Hebrews the honor of being the first believers in one God. Their sacred books, the Zend-Avesta, are very ancient, and the origin of their religion is placed anywhere from seven hundred B. C. to three thousand B. C, They not only believe in one God, but they believe in immortality and claim to have impressed their ideas upon the Israe lites when the latter were in bondage in Babylon. The Parsees see in the world, as well as in the human being, a continuing conflict between right and wrong, and they regulate their conduct by a high ethical system. When the Moslems swept over Persia and made it one of the stars n Islam s crown, a band of Parsees preferred migra- imS-h?' conversl0?' and "to our Pgrim fathers, sought a home in a new country. in Bombay they have preserved their identity for some nine centuries and have made themselves a potent in Shvcei eVi5ry denai,tment?of the city's activity. They have their marriage 'ceremony, their fire temples and their funeral rites. They have some? times been called fire worshipers and suri wor shippers, but they simplyregard fire as throat thing known and therefore accept it as a symbol of the invisible god. 'pire . is kept burning in their temples, and when a new temple is to be dedicated, fire is collected from the homes of - ' " VOBUME 0, NUMBER 24 t ,i persons engaged in the principal industries and occupations, and this mingled fire is used to kindle another fire and this new fire another untU the ninth fire is lighted, and this becomes the intoroolrfnMEa ?,re lB ldndled thout corn g into contact with the former one; The Parsees have a peculiar form of burin i SSoUHTlnr fFT e-hlsticmtimesUr0n S5ar,,Hi11 ,n the suburbs of. Bombay over- g th?, Sfa' in ih0 mldst of a beautiful gat den, are their Towers of Silence. - These are Zf nCiTIar & twenty-five or thirty feet high and without a roof. Within the wall is a circular platform sloping inward to a wel in the center, When a Parsee dies he is prepared for burial and borne to this garden; After the lSt fSSdbaT.e beefn Performed5and the relatives and SSSi hm? taen theIr farwell, the body is carried within the tower by men appointed for AsesoornPa,e HE PlaCed ?akd UP0n Watford as soon as the corpse bearers 'depart, the wait- ng vultures (of which several hundred make their home in the garden) swoop down upon t and do not rise until the bones are bare The intt?" B,m"eil0hed; w washed rJins in the pit in the center, where rich and noor ISICUT and bSCUre' min& their dust to! f fixed r5lenTflSanltary Precaution is taken and ahrnnave f -flve r?pees is charged to all alike, ieI ?em? advancd om a burial fund Sense " n0t afford to bear the The Parsees of Bombay, though thev wear a dress peculiar to themselves; are bf all the In -Wenwe?eSin 22 p ETPeatlS Americans, we were in one Parsee home, and the furniture be'founln an" the librar ere uch as "o?d be found in the average home in our country amonhf11 that ?e percetage of education among the Parsees is very much higher than among any other class of, inhabitants and the the men Fe the educat!oP advantages wth one irnhhYtnl!;tT?'d0 Par6ees baY? been conspicu ?i Jjii nilanthPy endowing colleges, hospitals and other charities, while they are counted among the staunchest friends 6f British rule, they are also among the mostnteiJige. critcs of the lZel8JaUlt Sir. Pheros Mehta, the JS?g a See Orator' is Prominent "in the na- H wS888 vemat. At a reception given Snno5n?ff 'and n. tbe occaslons we had an opportunity to meet a number of, the Parsees, men and women, priests and laymen, and found m-obl wfi Wlt,h. ,tbe. times and ali to the problems with which the world is wrestling to nay, w iw1 n0t fl0Se this article, without mention nS 1 creaJin Presence' of, American influence SJSTni m, i Anierlcan mlmter, Dr. Mell, is Amlrt ln prIncIPal Methodist church, and the tSK ?an emotionalists .have a largely at- Mnnvdnf?T001 T SirlS in the city. 2JSLS ithe Btudentfi were talen from famIe- KBh0,aeB and are beIn educated with &2 bllmi TnT' ATherf is als ore a school for tft! ?f,5i?dep erican management, where SS- J?e?! are not only taueht to read and Sev 'n,b.UtfiHra,Ined ln the tadustrlea for which tney are fitted. T tJLl0 0t P,?slfe for mentioning from time to time the institutions which altruistic Ameri- no?Sbn,aH? iTflea ver the 0rient- If we can 22.i? the-sun never sets on American territory, we can pd satisfaction in the, fact Ji!aLl.ei4?lJ? ever sets uP'n American philan tnropy, if the boom of our cannon does not fol low the Orb of Day in his -daily round, the grate- Vniianl? f th,ose who Bav,e been the benefi ciaries of American genere'siy form a chorus that encircles the globe. ' Copyright. i fU VYN,7 A London disnatcli 'to' 1ia -Maw vnrir sun says: "When America begins sina its great- est criminals to jail, Europe', wfy begin to believe' that there is a real standard 'of morality in that . country." We need not do this for the delectation of Europe, Long ago we should have commenced twe work of "sending oil' greatest criminals to jail.'1 It is never tOO late to enzntrn in n t?rtnrt ' k. Let the New York Sun and other great? wor newspapers abandon the bad, habit they have of apologizing lor the misdeeds 'of rich rascals who, ; under the guise of "business enterprise," commit all manner of offenses against the laws of 'God and the statutes of man, B2 fi a&s&iti&ZLA