Rev. A. R. Macduff, in his book of anecdotes about missionaries
on the frontier force in northwestern India, says that India
is a land where, when a tale is once set going, it is no easy
matter “to nail the lie to the counter.” Rowland Bateman, the
celebrated cricketer, who went as a missionary to India, was
a stanch teetotaler, yet a rumor was started that he and his
fellow missionaries were worshipers of the whisky bottle. It
came about this way: Once, on a preaching tour, they spent a
night in a “rest-house” which had previously been occupied by
some carousing European travelers. Empty whisky bottles were
in evidence, and Bateman utilized a couple for candlesticks to
hold the lights for the evening Scripture reading. With good
conscience, Bateman gathered his little company around the
table on which stood the candles, and they knelt in prayer all
unconscious of the interpretation a spying native was putting
upon the service. In the morning he and his band were hailed as
whisky-bottle worshipers.
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