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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 3, 1903)
Paradise of the Hindoo Coolie TiHIS," recently remarked Joseph Chamberlain, England's colonial m.ii.iii secretary, as be placed a finger , on a map showing Britain's pos sessions In the Weit Indira, "la the paradise of lb Hindoo coolie." "And there, too," added one of his hear er, "l hone tame Orients' have created an tmonphr re that fairly recka with romance." The American or European who hna spent sufficient time In Jamaica or Trinidad to become Acquainted with the ways of the thousands of Hindoo laborers on the plan tations and the coolie tradesmen In the towns Invariably makes the same asser tions. To prove the first, he usually quotes the case of Rain Sal, and, as evidence of the latter, bo tells the story of a rajah'a son who turned coolie for love's sake. Thirty years ago a Hindoo of low caste, Ilam Sal by name, living In a plateau town of India, found himself Inextricably In debt to a bunnla a usurious money lender. Ho had been bound in his boyhood for the debt of his grandfather, and, after working for nearly twenty years to clear it, he learned to his distress that, Instead of becoming mailer the obligation had steadily In creased through all tho years, owing to his insignificant pay of scarcely 2 pennies a dny and tho excessive rate of Interest. Ram Sal saw starvation staring himself and his family In the face, and so, when n European, coming to the village, told of place across the "black water" where a Hindoo could earn as much as 25 cents a day and after binding himself to work for eight years on a plantation, would be freed of both his contract and his debt, Ram Sal traightway prepared to follow the coolie contractor whither he led and the bunula commanded. The ship that Ram Sal and bis family were huddled on bore them In course of time to Trinidad, and there, by the terms of the contract, Rara Sat was given quar ters Id long, low coolio barracks, from which he went out In the mornings to toll until sundown in the coffee and sugar fields, the banana, orange and spice groves. Thus bo worked for six years, the planter In the meantime feeding him on rice and clothing him, and the agent of the bunnla seeing to it that until every cent of Ram's Indebtedness waa paid not a cent of his biro reached his pocket, but was turned over Instead to the agent by Ram's em ployer. At the end of the sixth year Ram Sal felt the jlcgle of coin In his hands for the first time, for the debt of a few rupees that his grandfather had contracted when he took Ram's grandmother to wife waa wiped out. The ring of the coin stirred up a strange desire In the coolie's heart it awakened his ambition, and he vowed then and there that he would bv rich some day and a planter himself. To that goal, during the remaining two (Copyright, 1903, by Ray T. Seaman.) 1 . . I L . L a It . . . m 1 r,. who nave actually Deen on me I Polnt of itarvatlon, whether In mo sireeis or a Dig city, in tne Junius of South America, In an open boat at tea, or on the sandy deserts of Australia, give strangely diver gent account of their feelings. Their stories go to prove that different men feel starvation in different ways.' Some suffer Intensely; others hardly at all. Some feel acute physical pain, while the suf ferings of others appear to be purely men tal. A sailor whose schooner was wrecked on a voyage from the Cayman Islands to Jamaica a few years ago, and who spent nearly two weeks in an open boat without food, was asked how he felt during that time. "1 hardly felt at all after the first two days." he sild. "I seemed to outgrow the longing for food, and I do not remem ber suffering any particular pain. I drifted along in a dreamy sort of way, not caring what happened. Even when I saw tho ehli) which picked me up I was not wildly excited. I was too faint to worry. The only craving I remember dis'.tn-tty was for a gluss of rum and a smoke cf tobacco, and that was very strange, because I am practically a teetotaler aud do not greatly care for smoking." A man who Is now receiving a big sal ary in New York had a hard time when he first came to the city, and nearly starved. For days and weeks together he did not have a decent mral. and, by his own ac count, he suffered tenures. "I could not keep still." he said. "Often, when I was frightfully hungry ant hadn't a cent to buy anything, I would go to one cf the free libraries and try to force my self to alt down and rest. But it wi,a no uso. Some irtesl.-tible Impulse wculj drive me out Into the Btreets again, and I would pace them restlessly for hours, hungrily watching the restaurants and wondering when I would get another square meal. "The faces of the people In the crowded streets got cn my nerves. Faces, faces, nothing but faces! They streamed by, me continually, day and night not one of them familiar; not one of them kindly. It years of his Indenture, Ram Sal saved every penny that he earned, and his children, by their labor in the fields, helped Increase the amount. At tho end of that time It waa pitiably small something less than a half thousand dollars but It was more money than Ram Sal ever owned before, and, what was more Important, It waa suf ficient for tho execution of his present pur pose, the establishment of himself as a silversmith In the Hindoo quarter of Port-of-Spaln. Ram Sat had worked at the trade In India and was skilled In Its ways, so before long business was plentiful with him and he was fashioning bracelets and anklota and neck laces and torques of silver, and sometimes of gold, for the women of the better class of Hindoos, whose custom It Is to use their women as walking banks for their surplus. In short. Ram prospered exceedingly, so much so lhat at the end of five years be was able to go Into the Interior and buy a run-down plantation adjoining the neon which he had been bound for eight years. In the lterim -Ram had not forgotten how fields were made to yield their increase. As a planter he so directed the labors of the hundred or more collies indentured to him that his plantation soon became noted as one of the most productive in the valley. Rara Sal was now fairly started on his road to fortune, and each succeeding step that ho took brought him nearer it. Year by year ho added to his possessions, some times a plantation, often real estate In Port-of-Spaln, where he set himself up in a mansion, whence he went about directing his ever Increasing Interests. Thus Ram Sal prospered until two years ago, when, old in years, he died; and when his heirs came to reckon up the estate, they found It to be worth nearly a million dollars. It Is true that Ram Sal's efforts at money getting were exceptional, but it Is also true that among the coolies in Trinidad and Ja maica are many thrifty small planters and shopkeepers whose Individual possessions are valued all the way from J5.000 to $50. 000 on their government's tax books. And these Hindoos, If they had not followed the contractors westward at the bidding of their masters, the bunnlas, would still be slaving away In the plateau country of their native land in hopeless effort to clear off the Inherited debts hanging over their headj. That Is why Mr. Chamberlain, who knows these things, spoke df his king's West In dian possessions as the coolie's paradise. Hut the other man called them the field of romance, because of the story of a rajah'a son, and many more like unto It. Hero is the story. The eldest son and heir of a rajah as one of the smaller states of Rajputana fell so violently In love with a beautiful maiden Stories Told by seemed as If It was my fate to stand still and see that awful procession of faces flit by forever. They did not strike me as belonging to real people; they seemed like the faces of ghosts. When I dropped off to Bleep at night I used to see those faces In my dreams, and for months after I became prosperous they haunted me day and night like a nightmare. "My hunger caused me the keenest phys ical torture. Every bone In my body ached; my head throbbod violently; I had terrible pains In my stomach, and halt the time I fert as If I was Just going to faint. As soon as hunger fairly got hold of me I lest every ounce of energy. I cou'd not look for work, aa I had been doing; I could not even beg. Two or three times I asked men for money In a timid, fieb'e way. but when lhey turned aside I did not persist. A poor, ill-drecsod woman gave me a dime one night, although I did not ask her. I got a good meal with It, but afterwards I felt hungrier than ever." An orchid hunter, who nearly perished In a Venezuelan Jungle two yoars ago, and who loat five of hla men by starvation, night after night when he went to bed famished and exhausted would dream of the markets that he had seen in various parts of the world. He would behold Ladeuhall market In Lon don, plied high with thousands of car casses and tons of meat; and just as he put out his hand to grasp a leg of beef or a sirloin steak, the vision would fade and In its place would be the gaily-colored maiket of Panama, with bananas, pine apples and oranges, glistening brightly In the tropical sunlight. Thos, too, would vanish when he tried to snatch them; and ho would awake hungrier and more mis erable than ever. "I could have borne the real horrors of the day a thousand times better," he (aid, "if it had not been for the tantalis ing miseries of the nights." This same explorer, during the month of seml-starvatlon which he experienced, suffered constantly from violent headaches, dull gnawing pains In the stomach, and had attack of malarial fever. And all the time he "could think of nothing but food," whkh Increased his misery tenfold. he had seen on the streets of his father's capital that he laid aside all thoughts of his own high caste and her equally low condition and proceeded to woo her. Every thing went well with the lovers for weeks until one of the prince's retinue, spying on him, found him keeping a tryst with the girl. The rajah was promptly Informed and, enraged at his heir's loss of caste, deter mined to wipe out the disgrace that the son bad brought upon himself and his family. With the craftiness of the Oriental the old rajah received his son with all the af fection of a devoted parent until he discov ered, through spies, the next meeting placo of the lovers. Then, as they were seated In a secluded pagoda, a band of the palace guards burst suddenly In upon them, and without warning slew tho maiden and then turned upon the prince. But the latter was too quick for the soldiers. Seizing his sword, ho managed to cut bis way clear and, knowing every idiosyncrasy of the palace and grounds, escaped into the city, where he hid. During the weeks that energetic search was made for him he kept himself under cover, and not until the efforts of his father relaxed did he dare crawl far from his hiding place. Even then he was in great danger, and, realizing that he could not hope to remain in his father's realm, he de cided to get as far away as possible. This he did by disguising and presenting him self to tho nearest coolie contractor, and a few weeks later he was on his way to Jamaica. He had worked as a common field la borer for five years before his story acci dentally became known. Over a certain number of coolies another coolie is usually placed as overseer. One day the rajah'a on and his overseer disagreed over a piece of work, and the latter was on the point of using a whip on the former when the plantation's superintendent, a young Scotsman, Interfered. The gratitude of the laborer was un bounded. For once ho lost his Oriental stoicism and tears came into his eyes as he aid: "Master, you have saved me from a great disgrace." Tho superintendent's curiosity was aroused, and although the Hindoo endeav ored to slink away, he was pressed so hard that he finally explained his remark. "You have saved me from a great dis grace," he said. "I, a rajah'a son, to be truck by a Hindoo of low caste!" Then the whole story, which the Scots man verified later on, came out. The hero of it is still employed on an Interior planta tion In Jamaica. Another story of the love of a man for a woman is typical of the countless romances that the coolies have brought with them to their new world homes. Iboran was the daughter of Chundar Lai Men Who Starved A graduate of Oxford university gave up all his prcepects in life some years ago to become a social worker among the poor of the East End of London. In order to get an Idea of what it felt like to be really poor, he lived for six days on 12 cents, eating nothing more than one tiny 2-cent loaf each day. As a reault, he nearly starved and was 111 for a week afterwards. "It would not have been very trying." he said, "if I had not seen food all round me in the bakers' shops, in the restaurants. In the butchers' and in the green-grocers'. I would walk about the streets for hours, watching the people go Into the restaurants for lunch and wondering what they were going to eat "By the end of the third day I was In a hair-comatose sUte. Practically, I had lost my identity and my memory. I was always thinking about food, but In quite a detached Bort of way, aa If it were noth ing to do with mo. I thought of It as an untraveled man might thirfk of India. My reason told me that in three days I could eat as much as I liked, but my mind could not take hold of that fact. It seemed as It I should always he eating one tiny loaf a day and watching other people go Into restaurants. "On the fifth day I was utterly cowed. If a man spoke to roe I trembled aod ceuld not answer, but slunk away. Every bit of moral fibre and every ounce of physical pluck were gone." After this experience the graduate In the school of starvation took keen Interest In discovering the sensations of other men who had gone hungry. He met many of them in the course of his philanthrople work, and ho discovered that in do two casea were their emotiona alike. "Starvation." he waa fond of saying, "Is a mental rather than a physical pain. Its principal terrors are connected with the mind and the Imagination. The educated and refined man, he who has seen better days, Is the man who suffers most when he goes short of food. The sufferings of a starving mature really a matter of tem perament. If he has not a highly-strung temperament, he does not suffer much. The more animal a man Is, the more comfort of a plateau Tillage of India. In the same town Ram Singh lived, and Ram was en gaged to marry Iboran when he could se cure rupees enough to make the wedding festivities. To that end he went to work: for an Englishman in a distant town. Two yesra later he returned to hla own village with the money, only to find that Chundar Lai and his daughter had followed a coolie contractor across the "black water." Ram Singh was In despair. To his ques tion as to where Iboran had gone no one could definitely answer him, not even the contractors, who had sent the girl along with hundreds of others to the sacoast to be shipped to any one of a halt dozen places Fiji, Natal. Trinidad, Jamaica, Brit ish Guiana, Montserrat. Ram Singh vowed that great as was the task before him he would find Iboran and marry her. There was but one way to do that. She had become a coolie; he must become a coolie also. "Perhaps she has been sent to Fiji," the contractors told him. So Ram Singh in dentured himself for a term of six yeara as a coolie on a FIJI plantation. Arrived there he set about hunting for Iboran when he was not required to be in the fields. But bis search was In vain she was not in Fiji. For six years Ram Singh worked and waited. Then "maybe she is in Natal," the plantation owner, who knew hie story, told him. And straightway Ram Singh bound himself fcr a term of six years to a Natal planter. Again it was six years wasted, six years of working and waiting. But on the day that his contract was ended Ram Singh signed away his liberty for a term of sis years and waa taken In a coolie ship to Trinidad. Here he got his first ray of hope. One day as he was about his search, he ran across l man who had teen a neighbor of Chundar Lai. Iboran's father, and he told Ram Singh that Iboran, mourning for her lover, whom she never expected to see again, had gone with her father from India to Jamaica. That was enough .j cause the years necessary to his release to pass swiftly tor Raw Singh, and then, with tba money that he had saved, he took passage to Jamaica and began his search with renewed heart. It was In an interior village that Iboran was found, still unmarried, still true to the memory of her lover. At first she would not believe that Ram Singh was other than a ghost, but when he had convinced her aud told of his world-wide search for her, the wedding festivities were straightway planned. Today Ram Singh and his wife, Iboran, the daughter of Chundar Lai, are living back of their little silversmith shop in the town where five years ago Ram Singh found his sweetheart. ably he ran starve. Some laborers wha nearly died of exposure and lack of food have told me that they hardly suffered at all. They soon drifted Into a semi-conscious state, which dulled their physical pain, and they had not sufficient Intelli gence to substitute the pangs of the Imag ination." A direct negative to this theory is given by a profestor of an Australian university who narrowly escaped dying of starvation during an expedition into tr.e desert coun try of Central Australia. - "I am sure," he said, "that I felt th pangs of hunger much less keenly than my black trackers and servants did. I had heard they could go for long periods with out food, but the second day we put our relvee on short commons they complained bitterly nud appeared to be In extreme pain. At that time I Buffered nothing, nor did I suffer until some days afterward. Indeed, although two or three of my men were almost dead from lack of food by the time we reached the nearest settlement, I really suffered very little. Tho only un pleacant sensations I can recall were occa sional bad headaches, slight pains In the stomach, and now and thea a feeling of falutness. At other times I felt excep tionally strong, although I had eaten hardly a serap of food for days. "If I were to judge by my own feelings, I should say that the agonies of starvation are muh exaggerated. But the sufferings of my men were terrible enough. I asked one of theut how he felt, when he was lying on the ground one evening too weak to move. " 'Boss.' he replied, me full of devil clawln' at me inside.' "I gave the poor wretch a little brandy, but he declared it made htm feel worse. "I did tiOt find that hunger in any way affected my mental powers. On the con trary, It seemed to improve them. I was able to take the keenest Interest in my scientific work. Possibly the fact that I had something to occupy my mind saved me from suffering as the others did. They, poor wretches, had nothing to do but to think of food. I believe that was why they buffered o keenly." (Continued on Page Eleven.)