Indians consider Europeans filthy who use a tooth-brush more than once. They use a twig or sliver of wood that has been chewed to a bushy end; it is thrown away after using. People who eat pork are considered worse than dogs.
Men who wear trousers and shirt place the shirt outside the trousers. Those who wear shoes have no socks.
Long, canoe-like boxes on cart wheels were in evidence in Cawnpore. The oxen were hitched to a crosspiece at the end of the shafts, while Indians, behind the oxen, were between the shafts and pushing with their breasts against the crosspiece.
A European carpenter shoves a plane from him, but an Indian carpenter pulls the plane toward him. Mechanics do most of their work sitting, and use their toes as a vise between which to hold a board while planing it. Before shoeing an ox, the beast's legs are bound with rope, when the animal will be thrown. The blacksmith then shoes the ox while he is sitting down. The Indian can make as convenient use of his toes as he does of his fingers.
Lucknow, next visited, is well provided with large tracts of park space, splendid roads and good shade. The city has a population of 300,000, and among this number were more Europeans than at Cawnpore. Several good European stores have been established, and these seemed to compete successfully with the native merchants.
This city shared with Cawnpore in the horrors of the Mutiny, as 3,000 souls were behind the historic walls of the Residency when the siege began, and when relief came there were less than a thousand alive.
Bedding is not generally furnished by hotels in India. Frequently, the "bed" is only a bedstead and springs, or, as will be found in smaller centers, strips of cowhide, lashed at sides, top and bottom, answer for springs; again, there is a mattress on the springs, but no bedclothing or pillows. At other times, only one sheet over the mattress, and nothing else. Owing to this unusual custom, a bag for carrying bedding is generally included in travelers' luggage. The contrast between India and Germany in this respect is very marked, as at a small hotel in Berlin at which I stopped the bed had a sheet and a feather tick for a covering. It was summer-time, but the covering would answer for Arctic weather. In one case the sheet was not sufficient covering; in the other the tick was too much.
One is more successful in beating down hotel rates in this country than anywhere else. It is a place of haggle and barter, and the business system aims to make a customer feel he has got the better of the bargain, while the seller is satisfied with his profit, although having come down from the original price one-half. There is always doubt whether the customer really has got the better of the transaction; but there is no question, however, about getting a concession, when, after a hotelkeeper has asked six or seven rupees a day, the traveler pays only five rupees ($1.60) a day. It seems to break an Indian boniface's heart to see a prospective guest go to another hotel.
"Babus" are men engaged at clerical work, and one has to scan his hotel bill closely before settling, as a babu may add an item to the laundry list or for ice, or even charge for other things that go with hotel accommodation. Many persons will overlook a small charge, and well the babu knows it. Extras belong to him.
The hotels are generally of one story, and all doors open on to a covered veranda. Almost every one has a servant—a "boy"—with him. Early in the evening and during the night, in front of room doors, may be seen one, two and sometimes three "boys" sleeping. If their master or any European should pass where they are lying they hurriedly arise in their blankets, salaam and bow, then immediately lie down again, remaining thus until another European footstep is heard, when up they jump, offer another salaam, and quickly settle down again to sleep. As few Indians wear shoes, they know when an European is approaching.