That Eurasian

by Aleph Bey

As I said, all during my life I had been giving assistance especially to the Eurasians, but these favors were desultory, scattered like the floss from the ripe pods of the semul tree, blown no one knows whither. The angel above, no doubt has a record of them, and I in the consciousness in having tried to do good, and so far it was well, but I wanted to see some tangible results.

There was a large number of these people in the station. Only a few of them had employment. The rest were like sheep without a shepherd, or rather, to use a truer expression, they were like mongrel pariah dogs, owned by no one and kicked by every one, and like such dogs getting a living by picking up any stray bones they could find. They were not inside anywhere. At the sports, races or any festivity they hung around the outskirts. If they went to church they were seated in the tail end of it and got only the drippings of the sanctuary. Only a few ever went to church. They felt they were not wanted even in the so-called House of God. Is it any wonder that they lost all ambition, all energy, lacking faith in everything good and noble, despised and cursed their own abject condition and helplessness? Tell a boy constantly that he is going to the dogs or devil and the chances are that he will make your words become true. The devil comes when he hears his name often called. The seeds of ill once planted will grow and come to maturity no one knows when, where or how. These people slunk away to their dens, where they lived in idleness and squalor and became acclimatized to evil. Not all of them I am glad to say, but too many of them I am sorry to admit. Some of them indulged in vice of the most degrading kind. Their worst enemy was the cheap liquor, provided for them by a benevolent Government, and every one who has visited this class of people in their huts, not houses, knows what the curse of drunkenness is to them.

To remedy this condition of idleness I got together a number of this class, and after talking over the situation, suggested that we start a factory of some sort in which only Eurasians would be employed. The idea was accepted at once. It was made a joint stock company with the shares so small that any one could get an interest in it. One proviso was that when any one wished to buy a share, the one having the largest number would be obliged to sell his extra shares at their first cost, and so on, until no one would own more than one share if there were buyers. The object of this was to get as many as possible to have a personal interest in the factory. All the stockholders were to vote according to the number of shares they held, for the officers and direction of the business. There were no paid directors to meet whenever they chose for the sole purpose of getting their fees, nor any agents to get a commission on the product without doing anything. We had a long discussion on this latter topic, and it was repeatedly iterated that the great curse of every business in India, is the agents or middlemen, who, with the directors, take the largest share of the profits. We would have none of them. We would sell our goods at low prices direct to the purchaser and consumer.

The project was soon successful. Every workman soon had a share or shares, as it was considered an honor to be a shareholder. There was to be a meeting once a month, or oftener, if the manager or any ten shareholders deemed it necessary, when each shareholder had a right to give his opinion and a vote was taken, the majority to rule. At these monthly meetings it was customary to have a lecture or discussion on something connected with the business. One was given on the proper use of tools, another on machinery, one on the saving of material. The speaker on this latter topic referred to Samuel Blodgett, called the “Successful Merchant.” This gentleman, who knew every part of his business, from cellar to garret, was one day watching a boy do up a package. When it was finished he said: “My boy, do you know that if every one in the house doing up a parcel should use as much paper and twine as you do, it would almost ruin us?” Then he untied the package, and made a much neater one with half the paper and half the twine. Turning to a clerk he asked how many packages they sent out a year. He then computed the waste of paper and twine, amounting to quite a sum. “There, my boy, you see what a waste there would be, so don’t let such a mistake occur again.” Then the lecturer urged the workmen to be very careful in saving every bit of wood, iron or any material, and then appealed to them that if each only wasted a quarter of an ana a day during the year, it would be a great loss to all, giving the amount. The speaker on tools and their use, went into all the details, showing the value of a good implement over a poor one, and the benefit of keeping it in the best condition. Another talked on the value of time, of being punctual, and showed the loss there would be if any were late or indolent or had to run around the shop looking for tools.

These lectures had a very beneficial effect. Besides, there were others on subjects not immediately connected with the business, such as health, temperance, morals. In brief, the project ceased to be an experiment, as the business became a means of livelihood to many, and better still, made them men.

This business was exactly in line with my theory. That in order to reform men, to lift them up from a level with the brutes, you must first give them a means of earning a living, give them enough food to eat, clothes to wear, and a decent place to live in. Until this is done, what is the use to talk to them about their souls, or preach to them about sin, or unfold to them the glories of Heaven, when they are sunken in the mire of earth up to their necks, and cannot get out of it? Why teach them how to fit themselves for Heaven, and not how to live on earth unmindful that the latter comes first? “Why fence the field when the oxen are within devouring the corn?” Man is first an animal, and what he needs first is food. Feed him, and then preach to him, if you choose. Poverty destroys honor and self respect, and so long as a man is tortured by cold and hunger, he cannot be reached by moral forces. The best way to prepare mankind for a home in Heaven, is to make it decently comfortable for them on earth. Says a distinguished writer, “Give to a man the right over my subsistence and he has power over my whole being.”

Our success in this matter was all we could expect. Still there was something wanting. Outside of the business the men were left to themselves each to wander in his own way.

At times I had invited them all to my house with their families, and my wife joined me heartily in entertaining them, but this was not quite satisfactory. There was naturally restraint. There was no place of public resort for them. I could sympathize with them, for I had been excluded from the club, yet had my pleasant home, my garden, my books, and far above all, my wife. We could have our daily drives, and often pleasant company, but where could these people go? I had resources enough and it has always been in my nature to be independent, for I had rather sit down on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than to be crowded on a velvet cushion.

One night, as I lay awake or half dreaming, my guiding angel gave me a suggestion. Years agone, the magistrate of the station, my paternal relative, though I was not aware of the connection at the time, had forbidden me to proceed with a building I had commenced. From that time this ground had been unused except as a pasture for my cows. The suggestion was, why not use this ground on which to erect a hall or building of some kind where the Eurasians could resort? I was willing to devote the ground, but the building, who was to erect it?

At our chota hazri the next morning I had no sooner mentioned the suggestion than my wife exclaimed: “The very thing! Let’s do it at once!” If it might be allowed me to use the words of a great man, I would quote the remark of Edmund Burke about his wife, and apply it to mine: “She discovers the right and wrong of things, not by reasoning but by sagacity.” She never opposed any good proposal of mine, and when she differed from me, it was with such a sweet reasonableness and loving persuasion that I took real pleasure in yielding to her suggestions. Never once did I have to ask like the Scotchman, “Wha’s to wear thae breeks, the day, you or me?” Carlyle says: “The English are torpid, the Scotch harsh, and the Irish affectionate.”