I had frequently in going about the station, seen a European whose name
I learned was Jasper. He had a beautiful house and well kept grounds on
a retired road. This much I saw as I passed his place, but had never
spoken to him. One morning he came, as I was sitting in the veranda, and
handing me his card said that his mali had told him that I had some very
fine crotons, and with my permission, he would like to see them. We went
into the yard, and through the garden, and I found he was greatly
interested in botany. This suited me exactly, as I began to have a
special delight in adding to my knowledge of that science, as well as
increasing my stock of plants. He praised my collection of crotons
saying that they could not be excelled in India. After a pleasant round
of seeing and chatting, he invited me to call on him, as he had some
things to show me and bade me “Good morning.”
Thus commenced one of the most pleasant friendships I could have formed,
which continued until his death. He was about middle age, of good parts,
well read, and I had not been with him an hour before I knew that he did
his own thinking. He always showed great respect for the opinions of
others, the same that he claimed they should have for his.
A few mornings after, I returned Mr. Jasper’s call, and was delighted
with his rare plants and flowers. We then took our seats on the veranda,
and he called for tea. In the course of our conversation, I referred to
my releasing the girl from the police. I could not forget that screaming
cry for help in the night, and the oftener I thought of it, the more
indignant I grew. At once he exclaimed “What an outrage! It seems
incredible that such things could be possible. It is not only this one
case, but all over India such seizures are taking place. Sometimes when
I hear of such things, I wish I was God, or given His power for a short
time, I would cause lightning to strike the men who organized such a
devilish system, and those who carry it on. I would make such a
retribution upon them all that they would feel they were in hell. If a
daughter of the Queen, or of the Prime Minister, or of a member of
Parliament, of the Viceroy or Commander in Chief, should be seized, to
be kept as a prisoner to pass a short life in infamy and die of vice
disease, what would happen? Why every paper in the United Kingdom would
have gory articles on the subject; the whole nation would be aroused,
and there would be a question in Parliament. If done in a foreign
country it would be a cause for war. It is the old story of whose ox is
gored. Admitting that she is an orphan, without friends, an Eurasian,
pardon me Mr. Japhet for this word.”
“Go on,” I quickly replied, “I have been too often under the lash, or
rather through the fire on account of that word to take any offence, for
I know just what you mean.”
He commenced again. “Suppose this girl and other girls are friendless
and weak, are they not the very ones to be protected? What are laws and
governments for, if they are not to shield those who need protection the
most? Are the laws for the rich, the strong and mighty, who do not need
their aid? To whom should we be charitable if not to the poor? To whom
shall we show mercy, if not to the weak and erring? These girls have
immortal souls, or else Christianity and all human teaching is a lie.
Have we not had it drummed into our ears, from our infancy that all
souls are precious in the sight of God, and that He is not a respecter
of persons; that the poor and helpless are his care? You know the
teachings of Christianity and of the Church, but what is the practice? I
am old enough to care very little about creeds and theories. I care more
to know of a man’s life, what are his daily acts and thoughts. I don’t
care to hear a man’s prayers, so much as to see what he does. He may
pray for the poor with his lips, but I would rather see him pay for them
from his pocket. But what is the practice here?
“We took this country because we had the power to do it. We hold it by
might and force, and rule it with a sort of tyranny, a military
despotism. We are not here because the people want us. If we did not
keep the country by force, not by moral or religious power, but by real
brutal force, it would slip out of our hands in a single day. Blink at
it as we may, this is the fact and no one can question it. Here then is
a force, of one hundred and fifty thousand English soldiers, more or
less, sent out at an enormous expense to live by the sweat and blood of
these poverty-stricken, overtaxed natives. Only ten per cent. of these
soldiers are allowed to marry. A direct violation of the laws of God and
nature. It is not enough that the people are taxed to support this great
army, they must also provide victims to gratify the,—I will not say
brutal, for that would be a libel on even the lowest of the brute
creation,—but the foul, inhuman lust of these officers and soldiers. And
what is enough to make infidels of all mankind, is that all this is done
under a Christian Queen, a woman and a mother, by authority of a
Christian Parliament, and executed by the Christian Government of India!
By a nation ever ready to parade its civilization, chivalry and
Christianity! No wonder that these heathen have so little faith in the
Christian religion. I heard an old missionary say that the worst place
for missionary work was in the vicinity of a cantonment; that the very
lowest heathen were degraded by contact with the soldiers. It is so
everywhere.
“A writer on Africa says, ‘The farther the traveler advances into the
interior, the better is the condition of the natives found to be, less
drunkenness and immorality!’ Yet it is pretended that we are holding
this country for the glory of God, and the welfare of the people, and
that the subjugation of the people of the world by Christian nations is
for the promotion of civilization and Christianity! Out on such cant and
hypocrisy! The biggest robbers get the loot, and we are the robbers. Why
not say so, that we are after the loot and nothing else? Why not be
truthful even if we are thieves and not try to cover up our iniquities
with a film of religious varnish?”
I had no chance to put in a word and did not care to, as I thought he
was hitting the bull’s-eye at every shot, but I interjected: “They say
that it is necessary to make some provision.”
“All rot,” he exclaimed, “it is a slander on humanity. Don’t you know
that men can frame excuses and apologies for everything they wish to do?
“Why not make provision for men to commit theft, or highway robbery or
murder? It is false that men cannot restrain or subdue their sexual
passion the same as they subdue their other passions. Are they worse
than the brutes? If men are such gross animals that they cannot control
themselves, they ought to do as Origen, the saint, did to himself, or as
they cripple their fighting stallions.
“The fact is that the teachings of our people are wrong. They always
uphold what they do themselves, and make excuses for those who do like
them. One cannot take up a high society English novel but he reads of
the seduction and ruin of some poor ignorant girl by some titled roue.
High society seems to demand and gloat over such rotten mental food, as
it enjoys its rank over ripe game. If not, why are such books written,
and some of them by women, too? If the literature of every nation is the
mirror of its mind, what can be the minds of those who write and read
such books? The level of public morality must be very low when the
higher classes can delight in such things. If these stories were written
to condemn vice and licentiousness, to show the curse and crime of
wrong-doing, I would say nothing, for I am not a prude, but the most of
these stories make the amours and seductions by their heroes as
something to be admired, rather than horrible and repulsive.
“If there is any truth in Christianity, or any force in morality, it
should be used against the great vices of the nation, as well as of the
individual. But, as the Rev. Mr. Morley, in the “Times,” says: ‘The
church has nothing to say to public justice and mercy, to the spirit of
our legislation, to the union of hearts and minds embracing all classes
and conditions. All this it leaves to the world.’
“What are all the sweet mouthings in church about baptismal regeneration
and holy communion, when the majority of those listening are constantly
violating the laws of God and their own natures, and not a word about
this? I suppose all the soldiers in these regiments have been baptized.
Were they regenerated? If so, they must have got over it very quickly.
If there is any virtue in baptism, they should be baptized every day,
and by immersion, even to drowning, and then they would not be fit to
live on earth, much less to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
“The trouble is, that in the churches, faith and morals, creed and
practice have been divorced, and do not live together. Many of these
soldiers would probably be astonished if it was suggested to them that
their religion had anything to do with their passions or their lusts.
They would probably answer as the old negro woman did, who had stolen a
goose. She went to church and gave testimony for Jesus. When reproached
by her mistress for doing such a thing, after her theft, she exclaimed:
‘Do you think I would deny my Lord and Master for the sake of a goose?’”
At this I interrupted him, by asking if these girls and women were
restrained and prevented from leaving?
“Certainly,” he said, “as much so as if they were in prison for life,
and there were armed sentries paraded before the gate. If, by any
chance, they escape, they are seized and brought back as any escaped
prisoner would be. The doors of these hells never open outward for these
poor wretches, and it might be written on the portals ‘Death to all who
enter here,’ and their lives are very brief when fresh victims must be
got. Talk about slavery! Why, the very worst African slavery is Paradise
to this, and our goody goody canting hypocrites make much ado over the
enslavement of the negroes.
“What can we expect when the church is silent, and the priests and
bishops make excuses, and apologies for this foul and ghastly pestilence
of lust? What a comment on the morals of a people when the church is
seriously considering the necessity of separate cups for administering
the wine at communion to prevent the contagion of venereal disease! Such
a proposition would be amusing and a sarcasm, if it were not so serious,
and yet an outsider cannot forbear asking why the church does not attack
the root of the matter instead of lopping the branches, or why such
noxious persons should be allowed to partake of the communion at all?”
Again I interrupted, I inquired if there were not medical examinations,
and did not the doctors give certificates?
“Certainly,” he said, “but what of them? They might as well give
consecrated charms to carry in the pocket, as a protection against
cyclones and earthquakes. Do you suppose any man can give a certificate
to protect any one against the evil results of a violation of the laws
of God and nature? Can we thwart God when He evidently intended to make
the consequences of sin terrible? Heal the sick, cure and save all we
can, but their medical examinations and so-called cures are for another
purpose. When Jesus lived, and as it is said, healed the diseased, what
did he always say? “Go and sin no more.” But these false cures are not
to cure, but on purpose to let the victims go and sin again, and be
damned. I am not giving my own opinions, for I have talked with doctors
themselves, and they have told me what they thought of the business.
“One of them, a Scotchman, a true man in every fibre of his being, a
surgeon who had been through the Mutiny, and at the siege of Delhi. I
met him one morning, coming from the hospital. He referred to what he
had been doing. Said he, ‘I hate the stinking business.’ ‘Why then,
don’t you refuse to do it?’ ‘Man, alive! I would then lose my position,
if I did. I am nearly ready to retire on a pension, and I cannot afford
to stop now, and lose that.’
“‘But you cure and give certificates,’ I suggested? ‘Certificates be
damned,’ he said with disgust; ‘I might as well snap my fingers, and say
that the wind shouldn’t blow again. Every time I have this hateful
business to do I wish the Viceroy or the Commander in Chief had to do my
dirty work, they would soon stop it if they had to make every soldier a
eunuch, unseminare them. It is only a trick or deception to delude the
soldiers to think they are safe, and let them go on from bad to worse.’
“I expressed surprise that those who made the law did not understand.
‘Understand,’ he replied, ‘they did not want to understand. They wished
to please the soldiers, even if it was by deception, and so made their
regulations, forgetting that the Almighty had made His laws some time
ago. We cannot frustrate the plans of God.’ Much more the doctor told
me. I hope Mr. Japhet,” said he, “that I have not detained you too
long.” I replied that I was in no hurry, as I had no special business on
hand.
He asked, “Were you ever in Naples?” “No,” I replied. “I want to tell
you a little incident. One morning, while visiting a friend who had long
been a resident of that city, we were seated at an open window, looking
out at the belching fires of Vesuvius. I remarked, ‘Why not bore a hole
or tunnel from the sea, and let in the waters to drown those infernal
fires? Wouldn’t there be a muttering and a spluttering, and a—’
“‘Stop, stop!’ he exclaimed. ‘You do not know what you are saying!
Should you dare suggest such a thing here in public, the Neapolitans
would mob you at once!’ After a little hesitation he continued: ‘Why, it
would be a crime! What a catastrophe would happen, and where would
Naples be, or even the globe itself, if such a thing should be done?’
“As my friend was of a religious turn, he went on: ‘It would be the most
stupendous attack on God’s order in nature that man ever attempted. The
building of the Tower of Babel would be children’s play compared to it.
It would be an eternal sin, involving not only the doer of it, but the
entire human race. Why, your suggestion will give me the nightmare as
long as I live in Naples, fearing that some God-defying man might do
it.’
“I have often thought of his remarks, and the lesson of them to me was,
that we cannot, or ought not to think of defying the physical laws of
nature, any more than we should outrage the moral laws of the God of
nature.” Thus ended my first call on Mr. Jasper.
On returning I had these thoughts: It is pitiable to think of the
thousands of loving Christian mothers praying daily for their soldier
boys in India, unaware of the cheap temptations furnished by the
Government within a few steps of their barracks, and to be with them in
camp, to march with them for their convenience.
It is pitiable to think of the thousands of pure, innocent women at
home, accepting as husbands the returned gentlemen from India, where
these have left a number of their own black-and-tan pickaninnies, or
have been shorn of their strength, in the laps of many Delilahs among
the native women.