Who scorns a base dishonest act, and tramples on a lie;
Who treats the woman and the child with gentle courtesy,
Who holds the Christian’s faith and hope, so does not fear to die!
Chorus—
He is the real Gentleman, whate’er his station be!’
All these years, off and on, Charlotte Tucker’s pen had been at work; and probably nothing that she ever wrote was of greater importance than the many tiny little booklets for translation into the various languages of India. After being composed by her in English they were rendered by competent persons into Urdu, Panjabi, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and were published at exceedingly low prices, to be sold by hundreds of thousands among the Natives of the country. Many were brought out by the Christian Literature Society for India, many more by the Punjab Religious Book Society. A small report of the latter Society, so early as about 1877-78, speaks of thirty-seven of A. L. O. E.’s tiny booklets as already published, and of fresh editions being in some cases already called for. A letter to her English Publishers, Messrs. Nelson & Sons, early in 1890, gives interesting information on the subject:—
‘Batala, Jan. 18, 1890.
‘I am much pleased to hear that Beyond the Black Waters is out at last, and return you many thanks for the copies for presentation, kindly sent for me.
‘The subject of “cheap editions” of works published long ago is of great interest to me. I am living in an immense country, swarming with Muhammadans, Hindus, and Infidels, where Government is educating tens of thousands of lads, without giving them any religious instruction.... An evident breakwater for the waves of impiety and sedition is religious literature. But it must be very cheap, or hardly any Natives will buy it. I saw long ago in a Report of the Christian Vernacular Society, that for one book costing, if I remember rightly, about threepence, forty are sold costing a pie, less than a farthing.[125] I resolved to write one-pie stories; did so; and thousands and tens of thousands have been sold.
‘A lady here has told me that The Young Pilgrim is out of print; she has vainly attempted to buy it. A cheap edition of that might, by God’s blessing, be useful in India. Good paper is not needed; but clear type and a bright cover,—not pink, as that soon fades in India.