BENARES.
BENARES, INDIA, Jan. 12, 1890.
On the evening of the 10th we left Calcutta, travelled all night, and
reached here at 1.30 P.M. yesterday. The railroads in India are mostly
six-feet gauge, substantially built, but very slow, twenty-five miles an
hour being the usual speed.
We brought along our own bedding, and stopped at stations for meals,
every thing being very primitive compared with accommodations found in
America or Europe. We passed through a country thickly populated, the
fields being highly cultivated, and planted with wheat, rice,
cocoa-nuts, etc. Parrots were flying about in flocks, or perched on the
telegraph wires. Elephants could be seen in the fields, and bullocks
were everywhere drawing carts or ploughing.
The two days we have been here have been very active ones, seeing the
wonders of this "Holy City." Yesterday morning, at seven o'clock, we
went out on the Ganges in a big boat. Splendid palaces were along the
shore for a mile or two, and thousands of pilgrims from all parts of
India and beyond were bathing and praying. At length we came to the
cremation places. The boat stopped within fifty feet of the shore, and
we saw the bodies of four dead persons in different stages of the
process of cremation: one where the ashes were being swept into the
river, and another just being brought down; this one was covered with a
red cloth, showing, as they said, that it was a female. The men who
carried the body first dipped it into the water, and then placed it on a
pile of wood and brush, and set fire to it. Each of the other two piles
of wood had a body on it, and both were being burned.
Passing through the city to Clark's Hotel, where we were stopping, we
had plenty of evidence that Benares sustained its reputation of being
the most filthy city in India. The Hindoo temples were especially dirty,
though some of them had gilded domes, and one, where there was a sacred
cow, was the most filthy of them all.
A Vienna friend asked me if I would not like to call on the Maharajah of
Benares, he being the ruler of the province, and behind his throne being
the Governor-General of India. I said yes, and we sent our cards to the
palace and asked an interview. An officer called, I suppose to look us
over, and after asking some questions said that His Highness would be
pleased to see us at one o'clock, and at that hour the same officer
called again, and we went to the palace in a carriage, and were at once
shown up to the second story, where we were met at the door by the
Maharajah, a young man thirty years old and very fine-looking. He spoke
English, and shook hands and welcomed us very politely. He was dressed
in brown velvet breeches, coat of yellow silk covered with silver stars,
cap of the same, and gold-embroidered shoes; and was smoking an immense
pipe with a stem twenty feet long. He led the way to an interior hall,
splendidly furnished in Oriental style, and showed us to a seat. We had
a conversation of about half an hour, during which I took occasion to
tell him something of our country, and invited him to come to New York.
He said he would be very glad to see America, and thanking us for
calling said he was sorry we could not stay some time in his dominions.
He then shook hands and said good-bye, directing an officer to send us
books about his province. Nothing could have been more polite and kind
than his attentions to us. I think it proper to say that my republican
pulse did not beat any quicker on seeing such a magnificent palace and
potentate, though I never saw the like or read of such scenes except in
the "Arabian Nights."
In the afternoon the party took another drive around the city, and while
the others were examining an extensive embroidery factory, I sat in the
carriage in the market-place, and was much entertained by various
aspects of Oriental life.
Once a little prince came along, mounted on a splendid horse, led by a
man dressed in red robes and with a red turban on his head. The little
lad was dressed in robes embroidered with gold, and altogether the scene
was one not to be witnessed anywhere except in this country, or at the
theatre.
We drove to an ancient city some distance off, and saw several old
palaces; passed through great groves of mango trees and plantations of
beans, peas, wheat, rice, etc. Natives, beggars, and children in great
numbers crowded around our carriages. We met a regiment of native
cavalry with white officers and a fine band of native musicians.