Ten years in Burma

by Julius Smith

Of all the trade in the country, there are two features that are a source of unmixed evil—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 “shops,” 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 Victoria’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 “The Town.” 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 religious life, 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 with my 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.