CHAPTER XXXVIII.
One morning, as I went to look at the work, I saw a well dressed European walking about, and examining the building, with the air of a Lord Moses at the head of the public works department. I paid no attention to him. He came up to me, and without a nod, or salutation, asked in an authoritative tone, “What is this building for?” as ifI was some native mistree. I replied that it was for a library and reading room, with a lecture hall to be a resort for the Eurasian community. He asked, “Is it not too large for them? Could they not have done with a cheaper building? It is a very fine building, too good for them, it seems to me. In fact, I have not a very good opinion of the Eurasians.”
I interrupted, “You are talking to one now, and I do not think your remark very becoming, at least, it is not pleasing to me, for you, a European, to speak so of a class of people, who are here, or the most of them, through the lusts and licentiousness of your Europeans.”
I was angry, and he saw it. He reddened up and said, “Excuse me, but I did not know you were an Eurasian, and you know that present company is always excepted.”
Either he was guilty of dullness, in not perceiving my complexion, or else of lying, and either was the same to me. I turned, and went to look at some work, and thus began and ended my only interview with the Commissioner of the Division. This little matter quite upset me for the day, for this reason. This man of pink eyes, white eyebrows, and yellow complexion, in appearance, manner and insolent words, was so like that paternal ancestor of mine that the sight of him, with his insolence, brought all those black, hateful scenes of my earlier life to my mind again, not that I cared so much for the name Eurasian, as applied to myself and others, for I had given him the word, but on account of his insolence and insulting remarks.
On another morning came the Collector of the District, quite a different type of man altogether from the Commissioner. He was very courteous, praised the building and grounds, hoped our undertaking would be most successful, as it was just what was needed. “By the way,” said he, “why didn’t you send your subscription paper to me, for I would gladly have subscribed.” I thanked him, saying that except two, all the subscribers were Eurasians, as we preferred to have them own the building, and feel that it was theirs. “A very good idea,” he answered. “As you will not let me help you with money, I will give you my best wishes for your success, and bid you good morning,”and shaking my hand, he left. There was such a wide contrast between this man and the Commissioner, that I enjoyed as much pleasure from his call, as I felt angry and disgusted with that of the other.
Still another caller, and he the Chaplain. Though he had been more than a year in the station, he had never called on us. We had never met until he appeared that morning, at our house. He introduced himself as the Chaplain. He need not have done this, as he had the padri marks all over him. He excused himself for not calling, on account of his many duties. Considerable of a lie for a padri to tell so early in the morning, I thought, for I had often seen him going to the club to idle away his time.
After some thoughtless conversation he hemmed and hawed, as some men do when they are in a quandary, or destitute of ideas, but finally said, “Mr. Japhet, I have noticed for some time past that very few Eurasians come to church, and as you have great influence over them, I trust you will use it for their good, and get them to attend divine service.” I replied that I had no influence over them in that respect, that if the church could not draw them, I certainly could not, and would not drive them to it, even if I had the power to do so; that I always reserved my right to decide for myself in all religious matters, and conceded to everybody else the same privilege. He left this tack, and began praising the building, inquired its object, and then suggested, “You will soon have the opening, I suppose, and as the Lord Bishop will soon be here on a visitation, would it not be well to invite him to preside.” I saw through his scheme at once. It was to get his fingers into our pie, or in other words to make a grand affair of us for his own eclat, with pomp and procession by the help of the Lord Bishop. Certainly, I did not give him a hint of my thoughts, but replied that we did not know just when the building would be finished; that we had formed no plans about the opening.
Others seemed to be suddenly afflicted with an intense desire to have the opening in good form. Among them my courteous caller, the Collector wrote, suggesting that theCommissioner be invited to preside on the occasion. I silently passed the note to my wife who viewed it for a few moments and then exclaimed, “The idea! Should he dare to preside after making such insulting remarks to you about the Eurasians, I would hiss, and every woman present would follow me. If you men have not spirit enough to stand up for your honor, and are too cowardly to resent insults, we will show you what we women can do,” and she would have done just as she said, for like a good and true wife she was very quick to resent anything that disparaged me. Then she laughed, one of those joyous inspiriting laughs, “Wouldn’t it be fun, though! Do it, Charles, do it; get him to preside, and I’ll give you a thousand rupees for a piano. It would be the best scene at the opening when all we women stand up and hiss until His Highness should retire.”
I wanted no such fun as that, though I would like to have pleased my wife and wanted the thousand rupees, so I calmly wrote to the Collector describing the call of the Commissioner and his remarks against the Eurasians; that some or all had heard of what he had said, and that it would be impossible for them to treat him with respect. I think the Collector was not at all displeased with the result, as there was not much love between the two men, and I mistrusted that the Commissioner had given a hint of the subject of the note to me.
Then there was a lull for awhile in regard to the opening. At length the building was finished, not a touch more needed anywhere and all as neat as a pin. I think that is the phrase to use, as good as any other. Our furniture was of the best kind, a goodly number of new books were on our library shelves, and the tables in our reading room were covered with magazines and papers, and best of all, everybody was delighted and happy.
I feel like moralizing on the new life that had come into our people. They seemed to be endowed with a new energy and inspiration, as if they felt they were somewhere and somebody. They carried themselves with an air of independence, and had thrown off that limp and God-and-man-forsaken appearance that they formerly wore. Theyhad become proud, and that is one of the necessary elements in the making of manhood.
“Independence is the rarest gift and the first condition of happiness.”
We had a general meeting, or several of them, in the lecture hall, of the women and men, for the women had an equal share in everything, and woe to the man who should have dared to propose anything else. I think, and am proud to say, that my wife was probably the instigator in this equal rights matter.
At our meeting it was voted that our building and association should be called “Our Club.” A constitution and by-laws were adopted, a committee of management elected for one year, consisting of an equal number of women and men who were to elect their own president.
At another meeting came the question of the opening or dedication of the building. Then there was an excitement. Some one not quite in the inside who had not heard of the insulting remarks of the Commissioner, proposed that that gentleman be invited to preside on the occasion. He had no sooner uttered the words than he was silenced by a storm of noes, those of the women the most emphatic of all.
There was a little fellow so retired and diffident that I had never heard him make a remark in any of our meetings, though he was always present. He sprang to his feet, lost sight of himself and rose to the occasion. Said he, “I am utterly opposed to inviting any outside Europeans. If we get one of the swells to preside he will look down on us and talk to us as if we were children, fools or outcasts. We have been patronized long enough. We are always put in the background, crowded into the outskirts, treated as scum or menials, except when the Europeans can use us for their own advantage. Then they fawn on us as if we were dogs, to do their bidding. They do not want us anywhere, and always treat us with contempt. Even a blatant Babu is treated with more respect than we are. They will not allow us to enlist as soldiers. They insult us when we ask for employment in the Government offices. The Government Railway Companies and themerchants stick up notices ‘No Eurasians need apply.’ When they advertise for clerks they add, ‘No Eurasians wanted.’
“In the mutiny they made all the use they could of the Eurasians. They were then considered good enough to help them fight and to protect their families. But if another mutiny occurs, the Babus or the Russians may take the country for all the help these haughty aristocrats will get from me.
“Don’t I know what I am talking about. My father was a shopkeeper in Lucknow at the time of the mutiny. All of his stores he took into the residency and gave them out to be distributed among the officers and their families. While the stores lasted he was patted on the back. It was Mr. Evans here and Mr. Evans there; let us see Evans! He was put in the most dangerous places of defense. What a favor! When the mutiny was over and others received medals and honors, his name was not even mentioned. He was only a shopkeeper and worse, an Eurasian. When he suggested payment for his stores he was told that he must submit to the usages of war, so he was left without a rupee for the support of his family, and died almost a beggar, though he had taken many thousands of rupees worth of goods into the entrenchment. Officers who had drunk many cases of his wines, and whose families had been kept from dying through his supplies of canned goods, afterwards did not know him when they met him face to face on the road. I could tell of the rebuffs and insults he received from them when he applied for honest work, but what is the use? Everybody knows the story and everywhere it was the same. It is time we stand up for ourselves and demand our right to live. If we are so lacking in energy that we cannot do this, and are so degraded as to be willing to be insulted and patronized as inferiors then the sooner we die the better.”
These are only a few of his sentences. He was greatly excited and each sentence came out like the puff report from a Gatling gun. His remarks had a great effect and it was some minutes before the audience became quiet, for he was cheered again and again.
Then some one arose and very deliberately said: “I heartily agree with every word Mr. Evans has said. It is time we cease to be patronized. We have been made slaves, menials, and been done to death by patronage, as if we existed only through the mercy and favor of these haughty over-bearing Europeans who are the sources of our being and the causes of our degradation. Without any further remarks I would suggest that we have no occasion to go outside to solicit any one to honor us with his presence. We have one among us, of our own class, who is our best friend as we all know, and but for whom we would not be assembled here to-night. Need I mention his name—Mr. Japhet—”
At this I sprang to my feet, for I had been silently enjoying, listening to the various speakers, thinking that from the independence in their remarks they had already mounted several rounds of the ladder towards liberty and manhood.
“My friends,” said I, “kindly allow me a few words. We have one among us, though not of us, and as he is not present I can speak freely of him. He is our truest and best friend, and has done more for us than all the rest put together. Therefore I move that this our sincere friend, Mr. Jasper, be invited to preside at our opening and give us an address.” As I spoke his name, there was such a cheering that the rest of my sentence, was completely drowned. It showed such a unanimity that it was not necessary to put the motion to a vote.
I had never told any one except my wife, of our friend’s most generous aid, as he had requested me not to do so, but all knew him well and esteemed him as their friend and one of the noblest of men.
Thus this long mooted question was settled and the other part of the programme was soon arranged. We were to have music by some in our own circle and by some other musicians, the best we could get, besides we had our grand piano, and paid for by my wife, though she did not do it at the expense of the Commissioner Sahib’s discomfiture.
Some one asked if it would not be proper to have the Chaplain make a prayer? For a few moments no reply was given, then one with the fervor of little Evans burst out,“Who is the chaplain? Where is he? What is he? What have we got to do with him? What has he done for us? We do not even know him. We were born without him, have lived without him and shall have to die and be buried without him, unless he can find it convenient to leave his croquet or billiards and rattle a prayer over our graves.”
Nothing more was said about this, not even a motion offered, and the little chap did not so much as receive an invitation to our opening. Why should he? He had never called on any one of them, never noticed them and so was nothing to them. What else could he be? His time was so occupied in “Society,” at the grand dinners, at the lawn parties, gossiping with the women about the latest fads in church decoration and millinery, preparing sermons on the wearing of surplices, the position at the eucharist, or the sign of the cross at baptism, the training of his surpliced choir, his postures and intonations, his daily visits to the club; so engrossed with the silly sheep and the follies of his flock that he had no time or inclination to look after the poor outcasts, the goats outside, so why should these run after him?
I think this was the milk in the cocoanut in regard to the opinion and feeling about the Chaplain.
There was a disposition not to have any Europeans present except Mr. Jasper and my wife, but I proposed that the Collector and a few others be invited and no objection was made. I had a sinister motive in this which was to have enough of this set present to see what we did and to circulate the report in “Society.” There was a Mrs. Grundy, a terror, not to evil-doers, but to everybody else, on account of the wagging facility of her tongue. She resembled a busy bee in this, that she was always busy and carried a sting in her tale. Her husband was an homunculus of a man, so counted for nothing. As I knew she would be excessively flattered by an invitation when all the others were left out, and as she would make an excellent substitute for a night reporter on a morning paper, she got one of our engraved cards highly perfumed.
The women took charge of the refreshment part of the ceremony, and assisted with their good taste in the decorations,and it is not necessary to say that everything they did was worthy of them.
Mr. Jasper at once consented to preside and to deliver the address, as it was a pleasure as well as a duty he felt he ought to perform. The time came. There were a number of Eurasian friends from other stations, besides those who had aided us with their subscriptions. “Our Club” was crowded to its fullest capacity. It was a rare entertainment. The music with several recitations, the refreshments and the after social visit were very enjoyable, but the creme de la creme of the occasion was the address of Mr. Jasper, so characteristic of the man, eloquent in its rhetoric and delivery, but still better because he spoke the thoughts of his soul, with such kindly, yet severe criticisms of the Eurasian character as to make us all wince under them, and with such tender urgent appeals as to bring tears into the eyes of everyone.
The main idea was the development of true manhood and womanhood, first in purity of thought. “For you are what your thoughts make you, and remember that every thought you have and every word you utter are immortal and will effect your souls forever.” While he was describing his highest ideals of character the audience seemed lifted up above themselves with holy aspirations, and when he showed the failure of many and the causes of them, every one could see himself as in a polished mirror and feel that he himself was being described. As several said afterwards, Mr. Jasper could not have given a better description of themselves had he known every secret of their whole lives. There was not an objection to any of his criticisms as all knew they were true to the strictest line. He took an hour in the delivery of the address though it seemed not more than half that time as all were entranced by his earnest thoughts. The address was printed to be kept as a creed or a Bible among us. Why not as a Bible or Sacred Scripture as good as any other man or set of men could make for us? All truth is true, no matter who utters it. “Precepts and promises from the lips of Jesus are not made true because he uttered them, because they were eternally true in the beginning with God.”
A little incident occurred during the social part of our opening that greatly affected me. Among our guests were a woman and her husband from a distant station. She was of fine appearance and address. She came to me and taking my hand, asked, “Mr. Japhet, do you remember me?” I could not for the moment recall her, and she remarked, “Do you remember once at night rescuing a young girl from two policemen? I was that girl, and many a thousand times have I thought with tears of joy of what you did for me! And I have prayed for you almost daily that the richest of heaven’s blessings might descend on you. Where would I have been taken and what would have become of me, if you had not saved me from what would have been my fate infinitely worse than death! I owe my life here and my eternal life, all I owe to you. You were indeed my savior, and I want to thank you with all my heart and all my soul.”
She wept for joy, as the contrast, of what she might have been and her present position, overcame her. I would belie myself and not be true to my manhood, if I did not admit that I also wept. What could give me a greater joy than to have been the means of saving a soul, and she an innocent helpless girl, from the jaws of a monster vice, and from a life of the foulest degradation, misery and eternal death? Better this than to be a hero in the greatest battle of the world. Such a deed, I can but think it, has an eternal record of good, while even the destruction of one fellow mortal in war, bears with it an everlasting stain and remorse, though it may win a medal or an empty plaudit to perish with this life. Some one has said: “He that saveth a soul from death shall hide a multitude of sins.” I trust this may be true for me.
She introduced me to her husband, a fine looking man. I heard afterwards that they were well-to-do and highly esteemed. She had heard of “Our Club,” and they came of their own accord, as she wished to see me and to express her gratitude for her salvation, as she called it. They were introduced to my wife and invited to our home where the whole story was retold and again she expressed her thanks with tears. There was joy not over a sinner that repented,but over an innocent one saved from sin and death. Is it not far better to keep people from sinning than to redeem them from sin?
“To prevent the commission of crime, prevent the manufacture of criminals.”
The Collector was one of our delighted guests and could not be lavish enough of his praise, and ever afterwards was one of the best friends of the Eurasians, giving employment to a number of them. Self help leads to other help, and the gods help those who help themselves. He was often a welcome visitor to Our Club and did not hesitate to make his tiffin of our soup, excellent bread and butter, and to praise our coffee, better, he said, than he could get at home and asked the privilege of getting his supply of bread and butter from our kitchen.
I need scarcely say that with our opening began a new era among the Eurasians. They took upon themselves a self reliance, an independence and an ambition to make themselves, what Mr. Jasper called in his address, true men and women. Even the very poorest of them walked more erect, when they could think of being members of the club, having a place they could call their own, and not live in a perpetual fear of being snubbed and scorned where they were not wanted. Not the least of the incitements to their energy and ambition was the interest “Our Club,” excited among the outsiders. Many sneered at what they called the “airs,” the Eurasians were putting on. Many were the insulting remarks that came to our ears. The lash of envy is often a greater stimulant than words of praise. A very few spoke well of our enterprise, though all seemed to feel a chagrin that we had such a grand building and much finer grounds than theirs.
Our work was not finished with the building. The management was yet to come, though as there was such an unanimity, there was little trouble. We had made our laws and rules. One of the most prominent matters was temperance. No intoxicating drinks were to be allowed on the premises. This was one of the laws fundamental and ever to remain unalterable. Mr. Jasper urged this with all his force of words. Another was that there was to be nogambling or betting of any kind, though there were fine billiard tables and other games for recreation and amusement, but no money to be involved in any game; no profanity, indecent stories and remarks, or improper behavior. Any one violating these laws was to be excluded from the privileges of the club at the discretion of the managing committee. No one was to be admitted without the payment of a fee, so small as to be within the means of the poorest. Nothing was to be donated by the club, as it was not to be a pauper asylum or a free soup kitchen, but it was assumed that the members might and should pay the fees of any they chose and purchase tickets for food. This would maintain the integrity of the club, stimulate benevolence among the members and tend to create independence in all. It was accepted as a part of our Gospel that all were to help each other, and especially those the most in need. Mr. Jasper made a point that the degradation of only one individual would affect the whole community as surely as that the smallest pebble thrown into the biggest ocean would make a ripple.
Our Club was for the development of manners, morals and mental growth, not for one day in seven, but every day in the year.