CHAPTER VThe City of Rangoon

Rangoonmay not perhaps be rated as a great, but it is an important, city. The population of Rangoon numbers above two hundred thousand, without the usual thickly-inhabited suburbs. It is a seaport third in importance in Southern Asia. Calcutta and Bombay are the only cities that surpass it. The capital of the province of Burma, it is the center of official life. Being situated so near the sea, only twenty miles inland, and having the best of harbors and every connection with the interior, both by rail and river, its importance as a trading center is very great. Compared to other Indian cities, it is more important than many with a greater population, while it is doubtful if any city in all the seacoasts of Southern Asia is of equal importance in proportion to its population. Then, it has the advantage of being a newly-planned city. As such it has straight streets, crossing at right angles for the most part, like Western cities of the modern plan. However, this admirable arrangement has been of far less advantage than it would have been, because the blocks are too narrow to be utilized to the best advantage. This blunder has, unhappily, been perpetuatedin the great new addition that has been made on the eastward of the city. It would seem that experience in this matter would have taught the municipality better things; but like other things Oriental, I suppose, they found it very difficult to get adapted to anything new. As the beginning was made that way, the end must be the same. But in the one fact that the streets are straight and at right angles, there is an advantage that is not found in any other Oriental city. The streets are kept well paved, and the general improvements are progressive, except in two very important particulars. They still use poor kerosene in inferior lamps for street lighting. Ten years ago I went to the municipal engineer, and asked him if it was not feasible to light the city with electricity, instead of the obsolete methods then, as now, in vogue. He said: â€œYes, it might be; but we are not so enterprising as you in America. We will wait ten years, and see if a new thing works well before we adopt it.â€ The ten years are passed, and still the smoky old lamps send out their indifferent light and obnoxious odorsâ€”too many of which befoul any Oriental cityâ€”because the municipal authorities have not yet found out that electric lighting is a success. This is being written in America, where most little towns of one or two thousand population are being well lighted with electricity, while over the sea the great city of Rangoon, with two hundred thousand inhabitants and large revenues, can not yet venture on this modern system of lighting its streets.

There is, also, a lamentable backwardness in the matter of street railways. There is a poorly-built and poorly-kept street railway run by steam. But there is little comfort in the car service, and the motive power is antiquated steam engines. The street railway, such as it is, is not extended to such limits as it should be. Were the streets lighted with electric-lights and a system of electric cars adequate to the city and suburbs running, these public improvements would be in keeping with what Rangoon is in the matter of trade.

There is only one other city in Burma of nearly the same number of inhabitants as Rangoon, and that is Mandalay, the capital of Upper Burma. This city was the capital of independent Burma in modern times. When the British annexed Upper Burma in 1886, they projected the railway to the city of Mandalay, and as it already had steamer connection with Lower Burma, its many advantages as a distributing center maintained its continued growth. While it has a population nearly equal to Rangoon, it has nothing else to be compared with the latter city.

There is a very great contrast between the two cities in the matter of racial population. While Mandalay has some immigrants from other lands, like other cities and towns of Burma, the city as a whole is distinctly Burman. Rangoon, on the other hand, is so foreign in its makeup that it can not be called a Burmese city. Relatively, very few Burmans live in the main part of the city. Here you find many peoples of India. There are wideareas of the city given over to the Tamils, Telegus, Bengalis, Gujaratties, and Chinese; while yet other Indian people are found in this Indian community to the exclusion of the Burmese. The Burmese live chiefly at both ends of the city of Rangoon, where there is much trading in rice and other dealings of a Burmese character. The Burmese have given way before the immigrants of India, largely because they are an independent and proud race, and will not do the work commonly done by the coolies and servants about the city. They look upon the immigrant from India as an inferior, and they will not allow themselves to be his competitor for the more menial services and work of the city. The Burmese, therefore, collect chiefly where they have occupation congenial to their tastes. It is significant that the Burman will work at almost anything, where the Madrassis and other Indian people are not working alongside of him. But where there may be constant contrasts or comparisons in inferior positions, he will not condescend to go. So he gives way to the native as indicated, not from necessity, but from choice.

Rangoon is a great trade center. The two greatest industries are that of the lumber trade and the traffic in rice. The lumber manufacture and sale has had previous mention. I will only add that immense sawmills line the river front at frequent intervals, and the logs lie in the river in great rafts, or in heaps on land. There are perhaps scores of elephants at work in connection with these mills.

The rice mills are conducted on a very large scale. The plan is common to make advances to brokers, who go out and loan money on the growing crop and agree to take the rice, which in the husk is called â€œpaddy,â€ at harvest time, at a given rate per hundred baskets. The basket holds about a bushel. Usually the price ranges about one hundred rupees for a hundred baskets, though often the rice is a fourth above or a fourth below this amount. The rupee is equal to thirty cents. As the price of rice is impossible of calculation so many months in advance of harvest, the millers who advance the money to the brokers, who are usually Burmans, and the brokers who advance the money to the cultivators agreeing to take â€œpaddyâ€ at a given rate at harvest, and the cultivators, all base their calculations upon guesses usually wrong, the whole system has much of the elements of gambling, like the dealing in futures on an American Board of Trade. The rice is husked and cleaned in these great mills, and sold to buyers from abroad, or in the local markets for food. Often the cleaned rice is sent to Europe, and converted into some kind of intoxicants, and comes back to curse the land out of which it grew. It is noteworthy that most of these greater business enterprises that call for great organization are managed by Europeans. But there are many merchants in wholesale or retail business that are of all races. The Chinamen are busy traders, and will doubtless have a more controlling voice in the affairs of business as time goes forward.

Of all the trade in the country, there are two features that are a source of unmixed evilâ€”the trade in opium, and the trade in liquor. It is true that the Government tries to keep the opium trade under very severe regulations; but it is always a failure to try to regulate that which itself feeds upon vice. The amount of liquor brought into Burma is something enormous. It is true that there are more people that do not drink than formerly, and those that still drink are less given to excessive drunkenness than in earlier years; yet there are more people in the land, and there are more of the natives, particularly Burmese, that are using intoxicants, in imitation of Europeans, and therefore the quantity of liquor brought to the country to supply this demand is greater than ever before. The ship that our party went on to Rangoon carried three missionaries and three hundred tons of liquor. I have no doubt this would not be above the average cargo for steamers plying between European ports and Burma. It is astonishing how this liquor has entered into ordinary trade. Most of the great importing houses deal in liquors. Most of the retail houses likewise. So it becomes difficult for a young man who is hostile to the whole liquor business to get work in any of the retail â€œshops,â€ as they are called, without staining his hands in this unholy traffic. One of the great reforms on the temperance questions in the East will be to develop a sentiment antagonistic to the traffic, until liquor-selling can not be countenanced as a respectable business.

The New Public Offices, Rangoon

Rangoon has several good public buildings, the greatest of these being the Government House, the residence of his honor the lieutenant-governor, and the great secretariat building, which is situated on grounds reserved for its use, in the center of the city. The latter building has been completed only about five years, and when newly occupied was considerably shaken by the heavy earthquake, which shook Rangoon and vicinity. But the damage done has been repaired, and the great building adorns the city and serves the purpose for which it was erected. There is also the elegant Jubilee Hall erected in honor of Queen Victoriaâ€™s illustrious reign.

Rangoon is divided into two distinct parts. The one is on the flat land adjoining the river, and extending a third of a mile back, and some four miles in length. This includes most of the business portion and all the crowded districts of the city. Here many thousands of people literally swarm by day, and sleep twenty in a single room at night. This portion of the city is called â€œThe Town.â€ It is almost always very dirty, except when washed by heavy rains. Here are still seen old buildings of every sort. However, these are disappearing more rapidly than one would anticipate, from the fact that they were originally all constructed of wood, and during the dry weather there have been frequent friendly fires of late years, and the town is by this means relieved of a good many unsightly structures. Henceforth there are to be no wooden buildings erected in the center of the city.

During the rains we are treated to a curious effect of the excessive moisture of the climate. Many of the old houses have been roofed by clay tiling. When this tiling is not frequently turned, the spores of certain weeds, which have gathered on the tiles as the rains increase and the clouds settle down in unbroken shadows over the land, spring up and grow to the height of two feet or more, growing as thick as grass in a meadow. This makes a house a very curious-looking object. A human habitation or church grown all over with weeds! When the clouds break away and the sun comes out, these weeds dry to a crisp.

Any student of a people, and most of all a missionary, is early attracted by the religious life of men. Of the many races that mix, but do not blend, in the population of Rangoon, each brings his own religion from the land of his birth. Each holds to his own faith with the greatest persistency, as a rule. Men will have dealings together on all subjects, except in religion. Here they differ widely, and they generally do not compromise their religious convictions or observance. Sometimes their dispositions to each other are that of covert hostility. But generally they get on in outward peace, but do not think of becoming proselytes to any other religion. The religious rites at the shrines are kept up faithfully. The great religious feasts are observed with much pomp. The social customs that are connected with each religion are seldom broken. So living side by side are adherents of every religion under the sun.

In the center of Dalhousie Street in Rangoon is a large pagoda, a shrine of the Buddhists, with its gilded conical shape rising far above all other buildings in the vicinity, while from its umbrella-like top there goes out on the tropical air the sweet sound of bells that hang on the rim of the umbrella. Just across the street from this pagoda is a mosque where the Mohammedan business men and passers-by go five times a day to pray. Two blocks east from these is a Hindu temple, and three or four blocks west is a Chinese temple, where their religious rites are observed, consisting mostly of offerings to devils. These temples are only samples. I understand there are a score of mosques in Rangoon. The number of Hindu temples I do not know, while there are pagodas in every quarter. There are various Chinese temples also. Throughout the city are now found several Christian Churches. Here the gospel light is held up to dispel the soul-darkening counsels of the Christless faiths. At a glance at these sacred places and religious rites it will be seen that the conflict between religious ideas and practices is general, and probably will become world-wide. The Europeans that go to that country must represent the Christian religion, or deteriorate religiously. The non-Christians must stand by their own, or in time they too will become modified. This is wholly independent of the aggressive battle that the missionary would wage against all these non-Christian religious systems. It is a significant fact that the missionaries who are in the midst of the religiouslife, so opposed to all they hold dear in faith and practice, have unbounded confidence in the final triumph of the gospel in leavening the present-day pagan faiths, as it did those of the New Testament times. I have yet to meet a hopeless missionary. This note of the hopeful conquering missionary force is an inbreathing of the Spirit of our Lord, who from his throne sends forth his heralds.

One fact will show how intense is the religious faith among some of the Asiatics. The Mohammedans and the Hindus are often very hostile to each other. If it were not for the hand of the English Government in India, this hostility would be almost continually breaking out into open violence in some parts of the country. As it is, it is not seldom that religious riots occur. In 1894, during a Mohammedan feast, in which they are accustomed to sacrifice a cow, the Mohammedans were determined to slaughter the animal not far from a business house of a rich Hindu, on whose premises there was also a private temple. As the Hindus worship the cow, and as the killing of such an animal, especially in religious services, is an abomination to them, they were naturally much incensed, and the Mohammedans probably meant that they should be. In this case the Mohammedans seemed to be the aggressors throughout. The fanatical antagonism was growing dangerous. The authorities were watching the movements of these two parties, the Mohammedans giving most concern. Several days went by, and the feeling was at fever heat. Sunday came, and as I rode to church withmy family in the early morning, I saw on every street companies of Mohammedans carrying clubs faced with irons, hurrying toward the center of the town where their greatest mosque is, and near which they meant to sacrifice the cow. Just as I concluded the morning service, I heard the sound of distant firing. In a few moments a Mohammedan ran by the church, with his face partly shot away. The excitement in the city grew as the facts became known.

The Mosque, Rangoon

The deputy commissioner and other officers were present at the center of the disturbance with a small company of Seik soldiers. The mob grew to many thousands, and the officers commanded them to disperse. This order they refused in derisive language. Then blank cartridges were fired to frighten the multitude, and still they refused to disperse. As there was nothing left to do, the troops were ordered to fire into the crowd that thronged about the mosque. Some thirty or more were shot, several being killed outright. This dispersed the crowds, but there was rioting for days whenever Mohammedans would find a Hindu away from his associates, or in unfrequented or unprotected localities. Had it not been for these rigorous measures of the authorities, the whole community would have been given over to violence. As it was, the whole Mohammedan community was doubly policed for six months, and the extra expense was put on to the tax of that particular community. This was effective in keeping order, and when the time had run its course, the Mohammedanspetitioned the local Government that if these extra police were taken away, they would behave themselves, which they have done ever since.

While â€œthe Townâ€ is such a center of life and strife, the suburbs are a place of quiet, rest, cleanliness, and beauty unsurpassed. The military cantonment is here, with perhaps nearly a mile square, laid out in large blocks and roomy compounds, or yards. A rule has long been in force in the cantonment, that there could only be one house erected on a lot. Most of these lots contain from one to four acres. This gives the room necessary to beautify the grounds, and to secure pure air. The cantonment is now being curtailed, and doubtless this admirable regulation may be modified. But as this land rises a little higher than the town, and, being a little apart from it, it will continue to be of great value for homes. The entire suburbs have a fine growth of trees, many of them natural forest trees and others ornamental, and planted for shade.

Entrance of Sway Dagon Pagoda

The chief object of all the region, the great Pagoda, is situated about the middle of this cantonment portion of the suburbs. But the suburbs run far beyond the cantonment. It reaches on three sides of this reserve, while the whole region to the northward is being occupied and built upon. There is a fine grove of forest and fruit trees extending most of the way to Insein, nine miles from Rangoon, and nearly all the intermediate area is built up with fine residences of Europeans, or rich natives. The homes out in the groves, and withlarge fruit gardens, furnish the ideal place for rest and refreshment after the work of the hot day in â€œthe Town.â€ It is a fact that Europeans who have lived for a while in this portion of the city of Rangoon seem loath to leave it for any place. If they go back to Europe, they mostly return again to Rangoon. Government House, a large palatial building, the residence of the lieutenant-governor, is the central attraction of all the fine residences of this region.

There are three areas of great beauty reserved by the authoritiesâ€”the Zoological Gardens, the Cantonment Gardens, and the Royal Lakes. All these reserves are beautiful with every variety of tree, bush, and flower that grows in the tropics, and the grounds are laid out with artistic care, and lakelets beautify the whole. But the â€œRoyal Lakesâ€ are a series of natural and artificial water basins, all connected and adorned with beautiful little islands and curved shore lines. A portion of the inclosure is kept as a public park, and a winding drive is maintained along the waterâ€™s edge, which gives an ever-changing picture of tropical beauty. The effect of the palms, the mangoes, and other shade and ornamental trees, toning down the fierce glare of the sun, and these shades reflected from the clear water on a tropical evening, is a blending of color that I have never seen anywhere equaled. The world has many places of beauty, but of those views I have seen nothing equals the â€œRoyal Lakesâ€ of Rangoon for combinations of charming scenery in a limited area. Evening andmorning this drive is crowded with vehicles of every type. Rangoonites of every race are out taking in the air and scenery. Here in the evening may be seen hundreds of people dressed in the coolest apparel, visiting and resting, while two or three evenings a week the band entertains with music. It is no wonder that Rangoon makes an attractive city for business and pleasure for any whose lot is cast in this tropical land. The heat is never as intense as in Indian cities, and always in the hottest weather it is modified with a sea-breeze. In the long and heavy rains also the people seem to get no harm from a frequent exposure.

Royal Lakes at Eventide, Rangoon

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