Various

“ It is amusing to observe how well-bred English dogs despise and turn up their noses at their native attendant, permitting the latter to lead them about and wash them when necessary without a growl of disapproval, but at the same time clearly showing by their outward bearing that no familiarities will be permitted. ”

“ One afternoon, however, when the two Hawthorns were sitting out under the spreading mango-tree in the back-garden, forgetting their doubts and hesitations in a quiet chat, Thomas came out to inform them duly that two gentlemen and a lady were waiting to see them in the big bare drawing-room. Marian sighed a sigh of profound relief. ‘A lady at last,’ she said hopefully. ‘Perhaps, Edward, they’ve begun to find out, after all, that they’ve made some mistake or other. ”

“ Generally speaking, the Bengal bheestie is a good, willing, hard-working servant, seldom giving trouble or requiring reproof. His chief duties are to supply the house and stables with fresh water from the best well in the neighbourhood. It is the special duty of the bheestie to keep the chatties or earthen jars of the bathroom filled with water. Where a garden is kept up—and in hot climates there is nothing so refreshing to the eye as a few flowers and bright-green shrubs around the house—it is the duty of the bheestie to assist the native gardener in watering the plants. ”

“ He is a most excellent groom; and by means of hand-rubbing—which he often practises for hours together—he brings out the muscles and sinews of a horse till they are as tough and hard as iron. It is a good custom to inspect daily the allowance of corn or grain provided by the syce for his charge, as not unfrequently dishonest grooms steal a portion of it and grind it for their own food.
The ‘grass-cutter,’ the last in our list, is a humble individual, who, as his title tells us, supplies grass for the horse to which he is attached. Hay is seldom seen in India ”

“ This, however, is a mistake on their part, which we will endeavour to explain, at the same time offering a few remarks, for the benefit of our countrymen daily leaving our shores for India, on native servants in general, their duties, peculiarities, and the best way of treating them to meet with success. But before taking them individually, it is with regret we feel compelled to allude to a practice not unfrequently indulged in by the young and thoughtless, of constantly using native terms of abuse to their attendants for the most trivial faults. ”

“ To his natural-born genius, there were united two characteristics which are necessary to all such pioneers—great perseverance, and a confidence in his own judgment which overbore all the adverse criticism of the multitude. ”

“ Packhorses conveyed from the Severn the clay used in the Potteries, bringing back in return coarse earthenware for export. The cloth-manufacturer of Yorkshire saddled his horse with his wares and travelled from fair to fair as his own salesman; and the little cotton used in the Manchester looms was transported from Liverpool in the same primitive fashion.
This was the state of the communications in England in 1757, when the Duke of Bridgewater, having been crossed in love by one of the beautiful Miss Gunnings, turned his attention to the more prosaic employment of canal construction. ”

“ I assure you, Tom, I’m absolutely ignorant on the subject of cane-culture.’
‘Girls brought up in England mostly are,’ Tom Dupuy replied with the air of a man who generously makes a great concession. ‘They don’t appear to feel much interest in sugar, like other people. I suppose in England there’s nothing much grown except corn and cattle.—But that wasn’t what I came over to talk about to-night, Nora. ”

“ Next we come to the syce or native groom; and in a stable where a valuable Arab horse has to be cared for, he is a most important personage. A really good, trustworthy syce is nowadays seldom to be met with. There are Mohammedan syces throughout Northern India; but the great majority are Hindus of low caste. The duties of the syce are, to groom and feed the horse he is put in charge of—a separate syce is necessary for each one of the horses comprising a stable—to be ready to accompany his master to the parade-ground, the band-stand, or for wherever he may be bound ”

“ Our countrymen now—unlike their predecessors, who lived like princes, spent their money freely, and made India their home—wisely adopt the opposite course, and look forward to the time when they may retire on a pension, and pass the remainder of their days in old England. ”

“ Then father hires a car for us, and another for the company, and we travel from village to village that way. We go to the towns in winter. Our theatre is well known; and in some places we make six pounds, and maybe seven or eight, in one night. Other times we might only take—as we’ve done here—ten shillings. We never go in debt,’ she added. ‘Mother sells our wardrobe when we are very poor, and then she asks kind ladies to help us by giving us their old clothes. Anything does for the stage so long as it’s bright. ”

“ The apparatus, which is placed under the floor of the car, consists of a brass cylinder filled with coal-oil, which, under pressure of a strong spring, is forced into a small super-heater, where it becomes vaporised. This oil-gas is ignited in a fire-clay combustion chamber, and although there is no flame, the fire-clay is brought to a white heat. The outer air passing over this hot box becomes well warmed, and a constant stream of fresh, warm air is assured to the passengers. The only visible evidence of the stove is a grating in the floor of the car through which the hot air rises. ”

“ In short, the machine rolls out the screws, instead of cutting them out. We have lately seen photographs of some of these screws which have been partially eaten away with acid, for the purpose of showing the fibrous nature of the metal. It is curious to note how the fibre is bent in and out as it follows the direction of the thread on the screw. This method of manufacture is said to present advantages apart from better quality. The screws can be more quickly produced at a less cost, and there is a great saving of material, for nothing is cut away to waste. ”

“ Those we have now act very fair: one gets five shillings a night; and the other two get three shillings and half a crown. If we have a good take at the door, father will give them an extra shilling apiece all round; but some nights they get all we make, and we get none. We only took one pound between these two nights. Business is slack; but maybe we’ll make more soon, when the people in the country hear of us; for we are a most respectable company,’ she added proudly. ‘In the last village we were in, we “took” a lot because we had the wonderful speaking pony “Jack.” ”

“ I know what this means. I’ve seen it before lots of times. You want to marry some woolly-headed brown man. I heard you were awfully thick with some of those people on board the Severn. That’s what always comes of sending West Indian girls to be educated in England. You’ll have to marry me in the end, though, all the same, because of the property. But you just mark my words: if you don’t marry me, as sure as fate, you’ll finish with marrying a woolly-headed mulatto!’
Nora rose to her full height with offended dignity. ‘Tom Dupuy,’ she said angrily, ‘you insult me! ”

“ There is no accommodation for hauling the traffic through, and the barges are consequently propelled from end to end by the exertions of the boatmen alone. Fifty years after its construction, the traffic on the canal had increased to such an extent that the mouths of the tunnel were perpetually blocked by a crowd of boats waiting to pass through, and the fights and quarrels among the boatmen for first place were a disgrace to the Canal Company. ”

“ When the water in the boiler falls below a certain level, the end of the pipe connected with the upper vessel becomes uncovered, and the steam being free to enter it, operates on the valves, thereby admitting a charge of water to the boiler from the copper vessel. A vacuum is formed in the copper vessel, which now recharges itself from the one beneath, ready for another operation. As many as five charges a minute can thus be obtained. Should the apparatus, from any cause, fail to work, and the water fall too low, a fusible plug melts and sounds an alarm whistle. ”

“ The first and most important servant to procure is a bearer, and it is by no means an easy post to fill up satisfactorily. He should be a Hindu of not too high a caste; nor, on the other hand, of the opposite extreme, a very low caste. ”

“ It is well, every now and again, to examine the quality and quantity of the grass supplied for each horse, or else lazy individuals will likely enough bring in coarse hard stuff quite unfit for the purpose. In large stations, a grass-cutter{205} who performs his work properly has often to walk many miles before reaching a spot where soft tender grass is procurable. The grass-cutter is under the immediate orders of the syce, and usually receives four rupees a month as pay for his services. ”

“ Taking the train one fine morning to Gretna Green, the lady was met at the station by her intended bridegroom, with whom she was speedily and indissolubly, according to local rite, made one for aye. Neither can any man say that ‘not being well married, it will be a good excuse for him hereafter to leave his wife,’ because, provided that two witnesses be present and the questions put be satisfactorily replied to, weddings such as these lack nought of the legal validity and obligation of those contracted with pealing organ and the most ceremoniously conducted ecclesiastical display. ”

“ There is much to be learned from the personal appearance and style of dress of native servants. Certificates to character should be carefully examined and received with caution; for not unfrequently these documents are forgeries, or borrowed for the occasion; sometimes copies from some genuine certificate supplied to another individual. The applicant for a place should also be questioned on the why and the wherefore of his quitting his last situation. As to caste, perhaps the kahar is the best for a bearer. Taken generally, the kahars are an industrious, quiet race of beings. ”

“ The door of his hotel will be thronged by eager candidates for situations; but unless under exceptional circumstances, such as a fellow-countryman travelling homewards, and anxious to obtain a place for a really good servant, he will act wisely to defer making a selection until he has reached his journey’s end, when, probably, he will have more time to look around and make his selection. ”

“ Out of a total of thirteen million cubic yards of earth which must be dug out before the canal is completed, nearly three millions have been removed. The canal is to have a surface width of twenty-four yards, except at the entrances, which will be widened to between fifty and sixty yards. One thousand men are at present employed upon the works, which, at the present rate of progress, should be completed in five years.
The Austrian government offer a prize of one thousand ducats (nearly five hundred pounds) for the discovery of a system of working coal in fiery mines without shot-firing. ”

“ So we’ve agreed together, Uncle Theodore and I, that I should—well, that I should endeavour to unite them by mutual arrangement.’
‘I don’t exactly understand,’ Nora said, as yet quite unsuspicious of his real meaning.
‘Why, you know, Nora, a man can’t live upon sugar and rum alone.’
‘Certainly not,’ Nora interrupted; ‘even if he’s a confirmed drunkard, it would be quite impossible. He must have something solid occasionally to eat as well.’
‘Ah, yes,’ Tom said, in a sentimental tone, endeavouring to rise as far as he was able to the height of the occasion. ”

“ A little patience and kindness, coupled with tact and firmness, will generally produce the desired effect, and is much to be preferred to harshness and constant scolding.
The young Anglo-Indian, on reaching his destination at, we will suppose, some up-country station in the North-western Provinces of Bengal or the Punjab, will, generally speaking, require the following servants: a bearer or personal attendant; khitmutghar or table attendant; bheestie or water-carrier; dhobie or washerman; mehter or sweeper; syce or groom; and a grass-cutter to provide fodder for his pony ”