*W2 
 
 STOCKING 
 

 GIFT OF 
 HORACE W. CARFENTSER 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
A BLUESTOCKING 
 IN INDIA 
 
 Her Medical Wards 
 and Messages Home 
 
 By 
 WINIFRED HESTON, M. D. 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 
Copyright, 1910, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 CARPENTIER 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
 Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 
 
To 
 Mr MOTHER 
 
 M183693 
 
THESE letters afford so personal a glimpse into 
 a certain phase of life and work in a particular 
 mission field that, in presenting them to the 
 public, it has been deemed wise by the writer to 
 change the names of the persons and places most 
 concerned. She would also take this opportunity 
 of expressing her gratitude to " Eleanor " for a 
 kindly assistance in preparing the book for the 
 press. 
 
 W. H. 
 
A Bluestocking in India 
 
 On the Atlantic, Oct. 20, 19 . 
 My dear Eleanor : 
 
 At last the bluestocking is launched 
 upon her career, even as she is upon the 
 briny deep, and with big and curious eyes is 
 looking eagerly into the future for fame and 
 name not wealth, the Fates forbid ! but 
 seriously, for usefulness and service to woman 
 kind. 
 
 I am all agog for experiences in any guise 
 whatsoever, and as you have insisted upon 
 my complete confidence as well as upon a 
 record of my least impressions, I will try to 
 keep you generally informed as to my prog 
 ress towards the beatific state of the approved 
 and perfect missionary. 
 
 Your letter to the steamer was a godsend. 
 I received such a stack of farewell mail that 
 I decided to read it in relays, and to-day, by 
 good fortune, I turned up yours. 
 
 It was too bad we could not meet before 
 I sailed, for I had so many things to say to 
 9 
 
10 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 you ; but what with the rush of your literary 
 career and the strenuousness of my student 
 life, it seemed to be absolutely impossible. 
 Nevertheless, I want to tell you right now, 
 that I can never forget nor cease to be grate 
 ful for the days of " auld lang syne," when 
 you alone of all my friends refused to laugh 
 at my aspirations. You took me seriously 
 more so, perhaps, than I did myself and by 
 doing so you encouraged me to believe in 
 myself and in my possibilities. 
 
 All through the last four years I have had 
 the same battle to fight among college mates, 
 medics, doctors in fact, every one, every 
 where. My special friend among the medics 
 used to say that I was a pretty specimen for 
 a missionary, with my fondness for dainty 
 dresses and things of the world generally, 
 and was eternally asking, " Why don t you 
 put on black and sober down a bit ? " But I 
 only laughed and tossed my head until she 
 began to speak slightingly of the work, and 
 then I whispered into her ear some of the 
 agonies of a woman s life in the thick dark 
 nesses of heathendom, till she became very 
 quiet, maintaining thereafter a strictly rever 
 ential attitude towards my future career. 
 
 In time I became quite inured to the jokes 
 of the girls, and to such songs as : 
 
A BLUESTOCKIKG IN INDIA 11 
 
 " Would I were a cassowary 
 On the plains of Timbuctoo, 
 I d eat a medical missionary, 
 Bible, bones, and hymn-book too. * 
 
 Tell me, do you always think of the 
 u female doctor " as wearing short skirts, 
 short hair, a budding moustache and talking 
 in a deep basso profundo voice? Among all 
 our students there was but one such. Please, 
 dear, remember me just as I was when last 
 we met, excepting the slightly more severe 
 and tailor-made aspect which professional 
 duties have compelled me to affect, but with 
 home and evening gowns just as frivolous as 
 in the days of yore, and with just as much 
 love and fun in my heart as when we were 
 youngsters together. 
 
 What a time I had leaving the hospital, 
 where my interneship had won for me such 
 splendid friends ! The great surgeon, Dr. 
 Stanley, actually swore, and called me a 
 fool for going to India, saying I might have 
 had a career in America. Dr. Foraker asked 
 me if I were going for the trip but he is an 
 agnostic. In fact it has been difficult for me 
 to make my motives understood the more 
 so since it is impossible for me to act piously 
 or to give any impression whatever of re 
 ligious tendencies. But there are noble men 
 
12 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 on the hospital staff, and at bottom they are 
 religious, though they would scorn to call 
 themselves so. 
 
 October 2jd. 
 
 The wind moans through the rigging and 
 a gray sky bends to meet a grayer sea. It 
 makes me feel the same colour a horrid 
 blue-gray which refuses to be shaken off 
 nor is it conducive to the cheering up of the 
 Collinses, my travelling companions, who 
 have left their little ten-year-old daughter in 
 America. Their parting on the wharf the 
 day we left New York was truly sorrowful. 
 The child an only one is dearer to her 
 father s heart than life itself, and is her 
 mother s light and joy. The poor little 
 thing was convulsed with sobs, and had to 
 be supported between two friends as her 
 parents tore themselves away for the last 
 time and dashed up the gangplank just as 
 it was being removed. It was a pitiful sight 
 to see them waving their handkerchiefs as 
 long as they could see each other, and then 
 the desolate parents disappeared below, to 
 spend the remainder of the day upon their 
 knees in their stuffy little cabin, in the throes 
 of the greatest of all the great sacrifices they 
 have made for India. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 13 
 
 To-day is the Sabbath, and Mr. Collins 
 conducted a service in the salon this morning, 
 very sweetly comparing our embarkation at 
 New York with our initial step into a life 
 with God. As we had only to board the 
 boat to be borne without further volition down 
 the river, out of the harbour, and thence upon 
 the broad ocean, so God will see to it that 
 we are borne out and away upon the great 
 ocean of His love into His own limitless, in 
 finite Life. 
 
 The consecration of that man is marvellous. 
 
 sK * * * * 
 
 I love the sea in all its moods. " The sea 
 is His, and He made it. The wideness of it 1 
 emblem of God s mercy. The wonder of 
 it God s wisdom. The horizon of it we 
 know not what lies beyond. The sorrow of 
 it separation and death. The promise of it 
 There shall be no more sea ! 
 
 Ah, yes, to me it spells so much separa 
 tion, loneliness, but withal a buoyant hope, 
 for I am young yet, and the world is all before 
 me, a world of promise, a world of work ! 
 
 I wonder how your American independence 
 would swallow second-class travel and twelfth- 
 rate boarding-houses ? Mine has been in a 
 state of surprise to apply no worse epithet 
 for sometime, from my advent into a stuffy hall 
 
14 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 bedroom, engaged for me by the kindness of 
 the Board, on the top floor of such a boarding- 
 house as is mentioned above, to my further 
 experience in an air-tight, second-class cabin 
 away down in the hold of the ship. You can 
 believe the latter did not hold me long. One 
 glance and I fled up to the light of heaven, 
 and there was no peace until I was transferred 
 to deck level, where winds careen and waters 
 dash. 
 
 All the refinement of the second-class is 
 collected at our table in the salon. Sitting 
 next to me is a French bourgeoisie, very home 
 sick and eager to see his sunny France once 
 again. Opposite is a dear old Italian priest 
 with a face like a yellow cameo and almost 
 wearing a halo around his fine, old head. 
 He is accompanied by a blond youth pre 
 paring for Holy Orders. 
 
 A fat little German serves me at table, and 
 as he knows not a word of English, while my 
 linguistic lustre has long been on the decline, 
 we have very amusing times. Between meals 
 he drags about a bass viol which might be 
 his twin, so short and stout are they both. 
 
 I survey the first-class passengers across 
 the bottomless pit placed between our prom 
 enade decks, and several of them reciprocate 
 with interest and an interrogation point. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 15 
 
 When darkness falls, and the orchestra plays, 
 I do a two-step toute seule in the shadow of 
 the deck canvas, and play that I am erste 
 klasse. 
 
 To-morrow we land at Cherbourg. We 
 shall spend a few days in Paris, and then 
 take ship again at Marseilles. 
 
 November 8th. 
 
 Here we are in the Red Sea gasping for 
 breath, perspiring in the thinnest muslins, 
 stretched across our deck-chairs limp as rags. 
 I never knew how to spell the word heat 
 before. I am thinking of asking the captain 
 to turn backwards for a space to catch some 
 of the speed breeze we have created during 
 our progress down. 
 
 The visible shore on our left consists of 
 mountains and desolation. Yesterday we 
 passed the Sinaitic Range, any one of whose 
 fifty peaks you are at liberty to select as that 
 upon which Moses stood. 
 
 The sea is so blue that it looks as if it were 
 coloured with Diamond Dyes doubtless the 
 reason for its being named Red. And the 
 sunsets ! Not gorgeous, like those at home, 
 where the sun dips down into the lake, but 
 just a wonderful blend of greenish lemon and 
 delicate rose which is warm and soft and 
 
16 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 tender, and so near that you seem to be 
 included in the affection of it. And the 
 nights ! There is such a lack of atmosphere 
 that the stars seem near enough to tempt 
 you to stretch forth a hand to clutch one. 
 
 There is no use in my trying to tell you of 
 my trip across the continent, or how I bit my 
 lips until the blood came in order to keep 
 back the tears when, at Cherbourg, we bade 
 farewell to our Atlantic steamer the last 
 link between me and home. My heart, my 
 past everything seemed then to have been 
 left in another world. In the future I must 
 spread my sails upon untried seas. 
 
 Paris was a dream of joy. In the Mediter 
 ranean, instead of sunny skies and placid 
 waters, we experienced a terrific storm. Only 
 a half-dozen men and myself were seen above 
 deck, and I had finally to succumb, after the 
 wind had picked me up bodily chair and 
 all and hurled me against the railing. It 
 was fascinating to see the sailors prepare the 
 boats for emergencies. The Hindu Laskars, 
 who had appeared so picturesque in Mar 
 seilles Harbour, with their blue mother hub- 
 bards, yellow sashes and red turbans, now 
 looked pinched and frozen in one blue jean 
 garment, with uncovered heads and bare feet. 
 
 At Port Said we went ashore, and had no 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 17 
 
 sooner made our appearance than we imme 
 diately became the targets for the maimed, 
 the halt, the blind, street venders, guides, 
 cabmen and what not. But we took neither 
 carriage, donkey, camel, nor tram. You 
 should see the tram ! It is the funniest little 
 plaything imaginable. The track is no wider 
 than my two feet are long ; the car is drawn 
 by one lean, little pony, and if you want to 
 stop him, you rap violently with your um 
 brella upon whatever is nearest at hand. 
 
 The Suez Canal presents another study of 
 the West in the East, for here a noisy train 
 dashes along, without, apparently, disturbing 
 the serenity of the camels that pace along in 
 stately fashion, bearing one or two Arabs on 
 one or both humps. At sunset time an Arab 
 camp may now and again be seen outlined 
 against the sky, the camels contentedly 
 munching, and the dusky-skinned men kneel 
 ing with their faces towards Mecca. 
 
 My newly-made English friends are a 
 never-ending source of delight. One of 
 them is so glad of an opportunity to learn 
 the pronunciation of some American names 
 she has always given to Illinois, Joliet and 
 such the proper French, and has called Mich 
 igan " Mitchigan," and Missouri, " Miss Sour 
 Eye." My cabin mate is an especially charm- 
 
18 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 ing girl, and we usually close the day with a 
 pillow-fight as a fitting expression of our 
 mutual contempt. I have to be constantly 
 on the alert to understand English as " she 
 is spoke," and have resigned myself to the 
 distinction of speaking in an unknown 
 tongue. 
 
 Yesterday, one old lady of quality took me 
 aside to labour with me about the folly of 
 throwing away my life in India. She has no 
 use for missionaries, it seems, but likes me 
 very much. 
 
 At this moment I know you are sound 
 asleep, and the old sun, which is scorching us 
 so zealously, has not yet penetrated into your 
 corner of the earth. Sleep on, Liebchen, 
 and rest, and be ready for your lonely little 
 doctor after the years have passed. 
 
 Hotel Esplanade, 
 Bomb ay y Nov. 20 y /p . 
 
 Eleanor dear : 
 
 Bombay is the most fascinating city 
 you have ever dreamed of ! Why, I could 
 sit here on my little individual balcony all 
 day long and do nothing but gaze at the 
 changing, brilliant throngs in the streets be 
 low. There are coolies with baskets on their 
 heads ; road-workers clad only in a loin* 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 19 
 
 cloth ; beggar boys with a whine ; men wear 
 ing white turbans, black English coats, with 
 brown legs bare ; men with white drapes and 
 yellow ones ; market-girls with jewels in 
 their noses ; Parsee women in dazzling and 
 costly raiment ; English and native officials 
 rolling about in their carriages ; horse-cars 
 laden with soldiers and natives, and bullocks 
 drawing cart-loads of strange-looking indi 
 viduals of many sorts. Across the road is a 
 beautiful garden, where hoarse-voiced birds 
 dart among the trees ; to the left may be seen 
 the blue waters of the harbour, dotted with 
 sails and all under a cloudless sky. 
 
 On the pavement below a snake-charmer 
 has just finished his performance, and now 
 looks up at me with expectant eye and out 
 stretched hand. His cobras, with their awful 
 hoods outspread, and his boa constrictor, 
 make my very blood run cold, but in their 
 sham fights with a fierce little mongoose, the 
 mongoose always came off victorious. It is 
 remarkable how these magicians make a 
 mango-tree grow up before your eyes, and 
 bear fruit, too, which the performer always 
 eats. He murdered a baby, thrusting it 
 through and through with a knife, and then 
 suddenly it sprang up quite intact. The 
 grand finale was his climbing a rope sus- 
 
20 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 pended from nothing, both he and the rope 
 finally disappearing in smoke. Oh, I am in 
 the Orient all right, without joking ! 
 
 I scarcely get myself comfortably settled 
 to write a letter when I must up and away to 
 eat that being, apparently, the chief occu 
 pation in this city. There is chota hazri (lit 
 tle breakfast) at 6 : 30 ; breakfast from 9 to 
 10 ; tiffin from 2 to 3 ; tea at 4 : 30, and din 
 ner at 7 : 45. The last is quite a festive oc 
 casion, with all the men and women in even 
 ing dress, while the servants, dazzling in 
 gaily coloured turbans, and purple and gold 
 belts over their white suits, glide noiselessly 
 about on their unshod feet. Punkahs, sus 
 pended from the ceiling, and worked by 
 coolies outside, serve to keep the air in mo 
 tion. These are the days when I am glad of 
 my pretty frocks. 
 
 My room is high and airy, with a white 
 catafalque for a bed. The hall is full of 
 servants, representing many castes and divi 
 sions of labour one to answer the bell, 
 another to make the bed, another to bring 
 tea, still another to prepare the bath, and so 
 on. 
 
 Last Wednesday I took tiffin at the uni 
 versity settlement, where four young women 
 from Cambridge are living and working 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 21 
 
 among the Parsee students. There are forty 
 of these Parsee young women now studying 
 medicine in the city, besides many more 
 taking the regular literary course in the 
 university and colleges. The same day I 
 visited the mission blind school. It is such 
 an interesting, sad, bright place, where the 
 children all left-overs from the last famine 
 read, and sing, and play the baby organs 
 remarkably well. One dear little thing had 
 been left by the roadside to perish by her 
 unfeeling parents, and she looked at the sun 
 so long that her eyes were completely ruined. 
 Yesterday I received a call from some 
 antiquated-looking Americans members of 
 my own mission who gave me a most 
 hearty welcome. Each wore a frock indica 
 tive of the year she came out, and spoke the 
 particular twang of her native state, strangely 
 modified by broad a s and quickly clipped 
 last syllables. In the evening, Miss Skinner 
 the short and fat and Miss Bouncer the 
 tall and thin took me for a drive, and I dis 
 covered them to be the j oiliest, loveliest 
 bodies imaginable. The drive was a continu 
 ous delight, through kaleidoscopic changes 
 past corpses wrapped in sheets and borne 
 of four ; past pariahs, students, Parsees, the 
 Hanging Gardens, the Towers of Silence, 
 
22 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 where the Parsee dead are devoured by 
 vultures, then on by the pretty bungalows on 
 Malabar Drive, and at the end feathery palms 
 against a lurid, sunset sky. We drove home 
 under the new moon. 
 
 You would laugh to see me in dark goggles, 
 a huge solar topee which sits way down over 
 my shoulders, and with my umbrella with a 
 white shroud on it ; but Miss Skinner insisted 
 upon this accoutrement as soon as she learned 
 of my severe headaches. She says it is the 
 sun. If I should get softening of the brain ! 
 
 Miss Bouncer conveys me to my station 
 up-country to-morrow. She is of the heroic 
 type, which wades rivers infested with croco 
 diles ; pursues burglars who run off with her 
 strong box ; preaches in the strongholds of 
 heathenism, and considers herself peculiarly 
 blest if she gets a stoning or two thrown 
 in. (Inwardly I am thanking my lucky stars 
 for that revolver which was given me years 
 ago.) I am sure she is disappointed in me 
 she is so serious, and has no use whatever 
 for things frivolous. 
 
 Dr. Jenkins, of our mission, is down with 
 bubonic plague happy prospect, eh ? Of 
 course he will die. I had not anticipated 
 the proximity of plague, but Frida will be 
 found game, never fear ! 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 23 
 
 Madhole> India y Dec. 30, 
 My dearest Eleanor ; 
 
 After many days ! Although I am 
 really not doing anything aside from study 
 ing, my time seems to be too full for writing 
 many letters. What will it be when I am 
 really into the work ? 
 
 Madhole (appropriately named, if it were 
 not pronounced Mudhole) is a wretched little 
 town made up of adobe huts and cactus- 
 bordered lanes. The mission compound is, 
 fortunately, in the suburbs, so that we escape, 
 to a large extent, the disgusting sights and 
 smells of native life. There is a large Chris 
 tian community here ; all of the people are 
 very friendly, and are eager to shake hands 
 a V Occident ; but when one becomes aware 
 of their divers skin diseases one is not very 
 anxious to reciprocate. We have a pleasant 
 household Mr. Gray, a jolly, little, old man 
 who keeps us all from becoming morbid ; his 
 daughter ; and three spinsters besides. My 
 never-ending source of amusement, however, 
 is the pundit Bhow, a dignified and stately 
 Brahmin who comes every day to give me 
 my language lesson. No matter how many 
 terrible blunders I make, he always assures 
 me that my accent is perfect, and that, under 
 his choice tutelage, I shall soon speak like a 
 
24 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 native born. It is my private opinion, how 
 ever, that he is much more interested in 
 improving his English than my Marathi. I 
 love to hear him talk. He says that dear, 
 jolly, little Mr. Gray is a fierce and angry 
 man, whom he fears very much. He hates 
 the English and Mohammedans, but says 
 Americans are pious fellows, who sent corn 
 to India during the recent famine. He does 
 not, however, approve of American women, 
 who, he says, are much educated, and quarrel 
 with the government for a seat in Parliament, 
 while a Hindu woman disobeys her husband 
 at the risk of a beating, or even her life. 
 One day he took Miss Gray and me to see 
 his garden on the outskirts of the town, where 
 banana and fig trees alternate with masses of 
 red and white oleander bloom, beautiful roses 
 and fragrant jasmine, and a deep well looks 
 cool and refreshing in the shade of a group 
 of mango trees. As we were taking our leave 
 Bhow presented us with some sugar-cane, 
 throwing the stalks at our feet. I was too 
 indignant to pick them up, but Miss Gray, 
 who is better trained in the customs of the 
 country, did so without hesitation, explaining 
 to me that the man s caste would be irrevo 
 cably broken if he actually gave us anything 
 with his hands so holy is he, so vile are we. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 25 
 
 It is a poor rule though which will not work 
 both ways, so the next day, instead of handing 
 him the reading book, I threw it on the floor at 
 his feet. He very angrily picked it up, asking 
 me why I had done that, and I replied that 
 from the previous day s experience I had 
 concluded that he preferred that custom. 
 Evidently, however, he does not, for he re 
 marked that when in an American s bungalow 
 he conforms to American customs. 
 
 Last week I suggested to him that he go 
 down to a native Christian dinner where they 
 were serving some very savoury meat, but he 
 was horrified, and exclaimed : " Ah, you eat 
 our gods ! All India weeps for her cows, 
 which you Europeans are killing ! Yes, you 
 eat our gods cruel people ! But it is 
 through ignorance some day, when you are 
 educated, you will know better ! " I could 
 not resist citing Swami Vivekananda as a 
 shining light of his religion, for you remem 
 ber how he used to enjoy his beefsteak din 
 ners in the Chicago restaurants during the 
 Parliament of Religions in 93. It was a 
 terrible shock to poor Bhow, but he rose to 
 the occasion, and said the Swami had reached 
 such a degree of holiness and perfection that 
 he could do anything and it would not be 
 sin. Hence he could lie about it without 
 
26 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 hesitation after being restored to the bosom 
 of his caste in India. Yet it is some satisfac 
 tion to know that he was not restored to that 
 select and holy estate without having par 
 taken of the five products of the holy cow. 
 
 It is awful to have the fact forced upon one 
 that these people do actually worship the 
 bovine species. I have seen boys of twelve 
 years reverently bend and fervently kiss the 
 tail of a cow in the bazaar streets, where the 
 animals are permitted to invade the grain 
 booths and to help themselves to such choice 
 morsels as their appetite demands. It is a 
 crime to kill a beef in this native state, so we 
 solace ourselves with goat. 
 
 Two weeks ago this mission celebrated its 
 fiftieth anniversary by holding a great feast 
 in an ancient grove ten miles away. There 
 were about a thousand Christians there, of 
 whom the women were perfectly and su 
 perbly oriental, with their splendid eyes and 
 curving lips ; and wearing their brilliant- 
 hued saris, silver anklets, glass bracelets, and 
 nose and earrings with a charming grace. 
 It was as good as a play to see them there, 
 against a background of ancient trees, from 
 which monkeys peeped chattering down, 
 while the bright sunlight flickered through 
 the branches and quivered over the leaves. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 27 
 
 I have avoided all professional work the 
 better to study, but one night soon after my 
 arrival I accompanied one of the sisters to a 
 neighbouring village to see some very sick 
 folk. We rode over on bicycles, and had no 
 very great mishaps, though I once plunged 
 headlong into a huge cactus-bush, scratching 
 out both my eyes upon which I did the 
 classical act of scratching them in again. I 
 can feel those thorns yet ! It was as much 
 as our lives were worth to get into the 
 native huts, and I had to call some one 
 to hold the buffaloes and goats as I 
 stepped gingerly past. The family, num 
 bering anywhere from six to twenty with 
 the quadrupeds and chickens made quite a 
 roomful. 
 
 Yesterday I went to a native Christian 
 wedding. Many guests had assembled, and 
 the ceremony had progressed to the point 
 where Mr. Gray asked the bride : " Do you 
 take this man to love, cherish, and obey" 
 when the young woman in the case re 
 sponded with a surprising and unmistakable 
 " No." Mr. Gray laboured with her in an 
 undertone, but to no avail. The marriage 
 had, as usual, been arranged by the parents, 
 without consulting the daughter. But it is 
 an almost unknown thing for a girl to be so 
 
28 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 bold and disobedient I predict a great fu 
 ture for her ! 
 
 Mr. Gray then explained the situation to 
 the assembled guests and asked for volun 
 teers to supply the vacancy. A young lady 
 promptly came forward, and the ceremony 
 proceeded as if nothing had happened. Af 
 terwards, the bridal pair left the altar by dif 
 ferent aisles to hold a reception under a tree, 
 where congratulations and rice were poured 
 upon them. The groom placed a silver ring 
 upon the great toe of the bride s left foot, 
 while a " best man " tied the former s neck- 
 scarf to the end of the latter s flowing gar 
 ment, and thus they sat in state for some 
 hours. 
 
 Christmas was too forlorn a day for me to 
 tell you anything about it. 
 
 February jd. 
 
 I am learning of enough tragedies in this 
 dreadful land to keep my hair standing on 
 end three-quarters of the time. I do not 
 know how it happens that there are so many 
 girls from heathen families here in the mis 
 sion school, but I suppose it is on account of 
 the commercial spirit of the parents, who are 
 glad to escape the responsibility and neces 
 sity of supporting them. Many wee things, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 29 
 
 reputed to be orphans, were left here during 
 the recent terrible famine, but when those 
 panicky days were past the parents appeared, 
 in the hope, I fancy, of personal profit, or 
 possibly they were actuated by a latent spark 
 of parental affection. 
 
 An awful thing has just happened. One 
 of these girls, about eleven or twelve years 
 old, unusually bright and attractive, and be 
 ginning to call herself a Christian in a timid, 
 pretty way, has been taken by her old heathen 
 mother for a religious sacrifice. Would to 
 God it had been to be crushed under the 
 wheels of the car of a Juggernaut, or to be cast 
 into the arms of a Moloch ! Either would 
 have been bliss compared with what she has be 
 fore her. The rite is called marriage to a god 
 an ugly little stone image sitting in front of 
 an ugly little temple which introduces the 
 poor thing at once to a life of shame. Hence 
 forth she has no hope, no redress, no choice ; 
 she is bound there in the chains of caste and 
 custom, and a vile ignorance. And she so 
 young ! She will not live many years, and 
 that is our only comfort. Mr. and Miss Gray 
 tried in every way to save her, but the brutal 
 mother has the law, the sentiment of the 
 people, and the religion of the country on her 
 side, so she took the child by force, and we 
 
30 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 are helpless. You cannot conceive of the 
 moral degradation of this people, indicated 
 by the low castes in such ways as this, and by 
 the higher castes in ways which I have yet 
 to learn ; but it is always a matter of religion 
 and most religious rites are accompanied by 
 the most immoral sentiments and deeds. 
 Every day I go for a walk across the maidan. 
 At such times the very atmosphere seems 
 pregnant with evil, pressing against one like 
 a tangible thing, and crushing down one s 
 spirit like a weight of blackness. The very 
 earth cries out to me it seems soaked in the 
 blood of innocent children sacrificed to the 
 lust and crime of an effete people. 
 
 But in spite of the country and the inhab 
 itants thereof, a glorious moon rides serenely 
 in the heavens at night, enveloping the land 
 in a silver flood and making a shimmering 
 fairy domain of the pitiless, God-forsaken 
 place. The days have been so hot lately 
 that we have taken to playing badminton by 
 moonlight, and it is great sport. 
 
 We are having delicious eating these days 
 bananas, oranges, guavas, custard-apples, 
 papayas, fresh beans and peas, and many 
 other good things, most of them growing in 
 Mr. Gray s tiny garden, which flourishes 
 back of the bungalow. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 31 
 
 From the town comes constantly the sound 
 of wailing mourning for the dead ; for 
 plague has not spared this village, and now 
 bids fair to depopulate it. 
 
 Walking through a cocoanut grove last 
 evening we were severely pelted by a band 
 of monkeys, whether in fun or in anger we 
 were unable to determine. In any event, we 
 should have had no redress since the people 
 hold this handsome animal sacred, and would 
 have mobbed us had we lifted so much as a 
 finger against one. It seems that monkeys 
 were instrumental in helping the god Ram 
 out of sundry scrapes while he was dwelling 
 upon the earth hence the worship. 
 
 We go to the hills in March, for the heat 
 is already very oppressive, and my head 
 aches at the slightest provocation. 
 
 Norheim, Mhableshwar, April 2, /p . 
 Beloved : 
 
 Has not that a homey look ? And it 
 is a homey place, with the most gorgeous 
 view you could imagine ! Nature has cut 
 out an immense cleft from the rocky range 
 directly in front, so we seem always to be 
 looking at a framed picture of distant hill 
 and valley, where lights and shadows play 
 hide-and-seek, and the mists creep softly in 
 
32 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 between. At twilight all below is a sea of 
 billowy clouds, all above a mellow, golden 
 glory. 
 
 Now that I am settling down and becom 
 ing dignified and serious, some of my con 
 freres have told me their first opinion of me, 
 to the effect that I should much better have 
 chosen the stage for a career than the mission 
 field. How is that for an aspiring M. D. ? 
 
 This morning I was giving vent to my 
 feelings at the baby organ some of those 
 songs, you know, which take a rather high 
 lilt when I saw the shadow of my new and 
 stately pundit pass the window. I finished 
 my strain before going to the door, and 
 what do you think I saw ? He was leaning 
 against a veranda pillar simply convulsed 
 with laughter ! I had never known him 
 even to smile before, but my performance 
 had been too much for his gravity. We 
 amuse them as much as they do us. I shall 
 never forget the first native singing I heard 
 at divine service in Madhole, when I could 
 only save my face by burying it in my topee, 
 whence it emerged wet with tears incident to 
 excessive laughter. The brethren thought 
 it had been a wave of homesickness. 
 
 These certainly are the craziest people ! 
 The tailors sew from them instead of towards 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 33 
 
 them ; their affirmative motion of the head is 
 our negative ; their beckoning with the hand 
 is our gesture of repulsion. They put all 
 the door-latches on upside down and on the 
 wrong side of the door, and everything is 
 backward, twisted, perverted. 
 
 There dines with us to-day a faith mission 
 ary who is noted for her ability in praying 
 down money and all sorts of blessings for her 
 famine orphans, but who always forgets to 
 pray down any luxuries for herself. She has 
 grown entirely out of the ways of the world ; 
 has nearly forgotten the English language, 
 and so can scarcely converse with her own 
 kind, but she has a sweet, spirituelle face it 
 is the face of a saint. Can you think of me 
 as ever being like that? 
 
 We of our own mission are a sorry lot, for 
 all the old ones are on their last pegs, and 
 the young ones are convalescing from plague, 
 whooping-cough, measles, or some such 
 thing. Even I am losing the smile which 
 formerly would not come off. Such is life in 
 India. 
 
 Karad, July /, 19 . 
 Dear, blessed Eleanor : 
 
 If it had not been for your cheerful 
 letters I should have died a thousand deaths 
 long ere this. I used to think I was a pretty 
 
34 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 hard-worked girl while taking my medical 
 course and interning in the city hospital, 
 but it could not hold a candle to this. I get 
 up every morning at six o clock, swallow my 
 chota hazri, rush over to the hospital annex 
 to deliver a lecture to the medical students, 
 make hospital rounds, go to dispensary, have 
 breakfast, then go to the operating-room, 
 after which I have tiffin, tennis, bath, dinner, 
 and preparation of lecture. 
 
 At present I am demonstrating myself an 
 oracle on the subject of chemistry and talk an 
 hour every day in pursuance thereof, with 
 an occasional quiz interspersed. The boys 
 ask the most absurd questions, and during 
 the first days would rise in a body as I 
 entered the class-room, greeting me with 
 " Good-night, sir." 
 
 All new missionaries are supposed to take 
 the first year for the acquisition of the lan 
 guage, but I was so eager to begin work, 
 and so at a loss to fill the days with anything 
 else than study, that I took my examination 
 at the end of six months. It has served one 
 purpose at least to convince the pious that 
 though wofully lacking in grace, I may 
 possess a little gray matter and so be of some 
 use upon the face of the earth. 
 
 Last week we attended a formal dinner 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 35 
 
 given by the premier of a neighbouring 
 native state. All the guests were Europeans 
 excepting two or three Brahmins, who, how 
 ever, would not pollute themselves by sitting 
 at table with us. An orchestra, concealed 
 behind a bank of palms, played some lively 
 airs, and I shocked my neighbours on both 
 sides by audibly expressing my desire to 
 dance, while the good sister opposite me sat 
 with an open Bible in her tap from which she 
 extracted texts for the edification of her escort. 
 I hope she did not call him a lost and miser 
 able sinner, and that he did not suffer from a 
 subsequent attack of indigestion induced by 
 an unhappy frame of mind. 
 
 In the midst of the tiger jungle and cobra s 
 den, I am living in a tent, and shall continue 
 to do so until the present congestion of the 
 station is relieved by some one s going on 
 furlough, when I shall have a roof to protect 
 me from the sun by day and the moon by 
 night. This canvas roof affords but little 
 protection from the fierce tropical sun, to 
 which I find myself very susceptible. Not 
 long since one of our men had to leave this 
 latitude forever, having suffered so many 
 sun attacks that he could not bear even the 
 light of the moon, and always had to wear 
 his solar topee on a bright moonlight night 
 
36 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 
 
 I like my little tent nevertheless. I have 
 all my boxes and trunks draped with brilliant- 
 hued rugs, and it looks very oriental. 
 
 The natives are a constant delight. When 
 Mrs. White gave an At Home to all the 
 students, nurses, and medical helpers, they 
 came in the most picturesque costumes. 
 The nurses wore sombre, gracefully hanging 
 garments, while the men appeared in all the 
 colours of the rainbow turbans of purple, red, 
 blue, and orange, and flowing white robes or 
 ill-fitting English coats and trousers. As we 
 sat watching them a sister gave me some of 
 their histories. A good-looking lad, who 
 attracted me very much, has a Christian 
 mother and a heathen father. When the 
 mother was converted her fond husband 
 thought to avert such a family disgrace, and 
 threats and beatings having availed nothing, 
 all but cut off the poor woman s nose. She 
 managed to wrench herself free before he had 
 quite completed his diabolical job, and 
 escaped, bleeding, to the mission bungalow, 
 where she found a refuge, and a quick 
 operation saved her nose, though leaving 
 an ugly scar. She never returned to her 
 cruel husband, and has developed into a 
 rare Christian woman and an efficient 
 helper. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 37 
 
 Karad, Sept. /j, /p . 
 
 All the world is lame, halt, blind, sick 
 mostly from deliberate violation of Nature s 
 laws, and God s. Somehow we all seem to 
 be strange perversions of a good plan, and 
 life is such a Chinese puzzle that it makes 
 one frantic to think of it. 
 
 Still I love my work it would be unen 
 durable, maddening, if I did not. And those 
 blessed boys in the school are adorable ! 
 From their manner, you would think that 
 the only function of their otherwise worthless 
 bodies was for my seraphic feet to tread 
 upon. Twice a week they come to the 
 bungalow for vocal exercise, and it is great 
 fun, for they are very ambitious to sing in 
 the English fashion. Occasionally they 
 render some native music for my express 
 benefit, and such screaming and trilling, 
 gestures of hands, and expressions of eyes, 
 you never saw, to say nothing of the boom 
 ing of their drum accompaniment, and the 
 thin picking of their stringed sathar. 
 
 It seems odd, some way, to find that these 
 dark-skinned people have the same feelings, 
 hopes and aspirations as ourselves ; that they 
 love and hate, and respond to any interest 
 shown in them, exactly as we do. The 
 senior hospital interne is the dearest boy, 
 
38 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 and though black as the ace of spades, his 
 soul is as white as a woolly lamb. 
 
 Among my private patients is a lady of 
 quality, who comes to see me with " rings in 
 her nose and bells on her toes," and anklets 
 and bracelets a-dangling. She is a retiring, 
 modest little thing, somewhat afraid of me, 
 not knowing in view of my career and bold 
 ways whether I am a real woman or not. 
 I long for the time when I can be on really 
 intimate terms with such as she, but they are 
 veritable children, with no interest above 
 buttons, and hobnobbing together would be 
 as difficult for me as for them. Their con 
 versation consists of such questions as, " Are 
 you married ? Where is your husband ? 
 How many children have you ? " and all 
 sorts of things concerning your dress, hair 
 and shoes. The blessed state of spinster- 
 hood is absolutely inconceivable to them, 
 besides being a terrible disgrace, and I find 
 myself trying to excuse this awful condition 
 of affairs by intimating that it has not been 
 from lack of opportunity but from choice and 
 devotion to my profession. But they cannot 
 understand that. Matrimony is their salva 
 tion, without which they are eternally damned. 
 By worshipping and serving a husband they 
 may possibly obtain a taste of heaven not 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 39 
 
 otherwise. You know Dr. Barrows said the 
 Hindus believed in the sisterhood of cows 
 and the damnation of women, and it is true 
 to the core. 
 
 It is full moon now you cannot dream of 
 the effulgence and brilliance of it, nor how it 
 touches up this dreadful, cactusy country 
 into a poet s idyll. Last night I was sitting 
 out in the garden drinking in the beauty of 
 it all, when a strange procession passed, con 
 sisting of about fifty white-robed men carry 
 ing black umbrellas. I wondered if they 
 were moonstruck, and wondered still more 
 when I discovered that every native was 
 doing the same, excepting the Christians. 
 To-day the mystery was explained to me. 
 It seems that once upon a time the god 
 Ganpati was taking a nice ride upon a rat, 
 when an ill-motived cat pursued the rat, and 
 Ganpati ignominiously fell off his noble 
 steed, whereupon the moon, riding full and 
 high in the heavens, laughed at his discom 
 fiture. Filled with rage, the god swore that 
 the light of the moon should nevermore 
 shine upon man. Hence the umbrellas. 
 Think of it ! And these grown men, among 
 them Brahmins of wealth and culture 1 
 
 Last week we were invited to see the cere 
 mony of adopting an heir to the throne 
 
40 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 quite a common custom in native states 
 where there is no male issue. When the 
 late chief died, his widow did her best to 
 introduce surreptitiously an imported babe 
 and pass it off as her own, but this oriental 
 trick did not work with the British govern 
 ment, so perforce the adopted prince. The 
 ceremony was not much in itself, but the ori 
 ental aspect was a great deal to my Western 
 eyes. As we drove through the court in a 
 state carriage, we could see on one side a 
 regiment of sepoys, flanked by a turbaned 
 crowd, and on the other, guards mounted on 
 splendid Arabian horses. At the entrance of 
 the durbar hall stood two huge elephants, 
 their trunks decorated with landscapes and 
 temples done in gold paint, and with trap 
 pings of velvet and gold. Within, the ceiling 
 was a mass of chandeliers and crystal pend 
 ants, beneath which were two galleries for 
 the native women, though the foreign women 
 sat boldly below with the men. 
 
 The chiefs were decked out in the finest 
 of white muslins, the richest of turbans, and 
 jewels galore. The little prince who was 
 being adopted wore rich cloth-of-gold made 
 into coat and trousers, instead of the grace 
 ful costume of the country, with stiff English 
 shoes on his unaccustomed feet, but his 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 41 
 
 turban was wrought with pearls and dia 
 monds. He conducted himself with the ut 
 most gravity, and it made my face ache to 
 watch the solemnity of his. The grand finale 
 consisted in our all being garlanded with 
 jasmine, anointed with sandal-wood oil, and 
 sprinkled with attar of roses, after which we 
 went outside to see the games. 
 
 Karad, Dec. /j, /p . 
 Well, Eleanor dear, a year is past and 
 over, and I still live to tell the tale ; but let 
 me whisper in your ear right now that if the 
 ensuing year proves as strenuous as the past, 
 it will be but an animated corpse going 
 about her duties out here and not Frida at 
 all, at all. Perhaps I was never intended for a 
 bluestocking at any rate my constitution 
 does not seem to be made of cast iron, nor 
 am I absolutely devoid of nerves or feeling. 
 Why, the other day I had to remove some 
 stitches from a poor little childwife, and it hurt 
 her so that I nearly died. When it was over I 
 just went and put my arms around her there 
 on the operating-table and cried and cried. 
 She, poor thing, seemed to cheer up the 
 more I wept until smiles broke through her 
 own tears and she began to comfort me. I 
 don t mind these things when the patient is 
 
42 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 anaesthetized, or when it is a big strong 
 woman, or best of all, a man ; but a wee, little 
 victim of fate like that, doomed to suffering 
 through ignorance and superstition, is more 
 than I can stand. 
 
 Oh, Eleanor, what if, after all, I am not 
 fitted for a career ? What if I prove a weak 
 ling, with too much sympathy and too little 
 nerve ? And after all the study, and aspi 
 ration, and sacrifice of home and love, and 
 everything that a woman holds most dear! 
 If I ever survive to come home again you 
 will not love me any more when you see 
 my white hair and wrinkles, my ghastly com 
 plexion, wooden leg, and glass eye. 
 
 But I am blue to-day ; I need a little 
 change, and if any one can be beguiled into 
 accompanying me, I shall certainly go off 
 for a little jaunt soon. I have taken up my 
 language study again with all the rest of the 
 work, and that, I reckon, is the last straw 
 which is breaking the camel s back. I shall 
 try to do the year s required study in six 
 months as before, so as to get it off my 
 hands, after which I can take my full share 
 of the medical and surgical work how I 
 shall glory in that ! I am already desperately 
 fond of the filthy old women and shrieking 
 babies who crowd my daily dispensary. One 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 43 
 
 little boy " possessed of a devil " makes him 
 self generally interesting whenever his mother 
 brings him. I have not yet developed the 
 powers of an exorcist, though this land of the 
 mystic cults ought to develop them. 
 
 Every Sunday evening we have the stu 
 dents at the bungalow, when we sing, and 
 repeat Scripture texts. Last Sunday Peter 
 the Bold sat gravely in front of us all, and 
 when his turn came said, with great em 
 phasis, " I have more understanding than all 
 my teachers." I nearly burst. He is in 
 process of being tamed and is very prom 
 ising. 
 
 I have discovered that this little old town 
 is a place of interest if not of beauty, for it 
 was a city in the year i B. C., and its fort and 
 citadel were mentioned in history in the year 
 1493, when America had hardly put on its 
 swaddling clothes. The strange thing about 
 it all is that everything is the same to-day as 
 it was thousands of years ago ; the same 
 names, the same primitive customs and 
 graceful styles. No wonder these people are 
 driven to worship their past that is about 
 all they have ; at least I would not give a 
 picayune for their present. 
 
 Could you ever have a cold, shiny, slippery 
 lizard for a pet? I have many of them, and 
 
44 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 it is no end of fun to watch them play tag on 
 the wall or to see one leave his tail a trophy 
 to the foe he soon grows another. 
 
 To-day a Jain funeral procession passed 
 the compound. The corpse, swathed in 
 white, was sitting upright upon the bier, 
 which was carried by several men. He had 
 for decoration a floating banner of red, and 
 some branches from the plantain tree, and 
 for a funeral dirge the monotonous tooting 
 of some wind instrument. He was buried in 
 a shallow grave, still sitting. 
 
 Rites of another fashion were performed 
 just outside the compound the other day, 
 where a band of rovers or gypsies from the 
 mountains were encamped. One of them 
 was ill with plague, and his clansmen spared 
 nothing to compass his recovery, which 
 means that a sacrifice and its attendant cere 
 monies were performed under our very eyes. 
 Amid great noise and frenzy on the part of 
 the women, eight goats were slain, while in 
 cantations and mad dancings progressed 
 without interruption. The poor plague vic 
 tim, who had been made to walk to the scene 
 of this wild orgy, and stand during the cere 
 mony, died within a few hours, and his de 
 mise was announced at midnight by the 
 wildest cries and the weirdest chants. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 45 
 
 Now I must go out " to eat the air," as the 
 natives have it. 
 
 December ijth. 
 
 A rest is in view ! Miss Pentup has con 
 sented to go with me for a holiday and we 
 shall have a great lark. 
 
 Cawnpore, Jan. 2, 19 . 
 My dear Eleanor : 
 
 I have been trying ever since Christ 
 mas to write and thank you for your part in 
 that adorable box. Anyway, words cannot 
 express all I feel, but if I had you here as well 
 as a few other people, I would squeeze you 
 all within an inch of your lives. It came 
 two days before Christmas, and in spite of 
 the fact that we are limited as to luggage 
 when travelling, I managed to pack some of 
 my new things to bring with me. 
 
 Miss Pentup and I had Christmas Eve in 
 our station with the rest, taking the train for 
 Bombay at ten o clock. Tell it not in Gath, 
 but we are travelling third-class because it is 
 so cheap less than one cent per mile and 
 we are going so far. On a third-class ticket 
 you can take hand-baggage only, and you 
 should have seen ours ! An immense roll of 
 bedding, with rugs and cushions, three dress- 
 suit cases, two small grips, two tin hat-boxes ; 
 
46 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 umbrellas, sun topees, and lunch boxes. In 
 this country we omit the cat and the canary. 
 
 We travelled all night, arriving at Bombay 
 at ten in the morning. We put our stuff in 
 the care of the ayah at the station ; changed 
 our clothes ; took a carriage, and started out 
 to celebrate. As we drove past the cathedral 
 whom should we meet just coming out from 
 service but the McFaddens, acquaintances of 
 last hot season. They pinned us down 
 until we had to tell our plans, so what did 
 they do but insist upon our going up to their 
 lovely bungalow for tiffin and tea, sending us 
 to our train later in their private carriage. 
 
 We remained three days at Allahabad, 
 and had a glorious time visiting a friend of 
 mine who kept us busy with drives, teas, and 
 At Homes. In the native quarters great 
 preparations were going on for the annual 
 pilgrimage. We visited the scene of the fair 
 which, two weeks later, would be swarming 
 with millions of Hindus. Many tiny flags 
 were floating in the breeze, each one indicat 
 ing the location of a holy man, some with 
 their platforms of spikes ready to sit or lie 
 upon, others cataleptically fixed in strained 
 positions often an arm has been upheld 
 until it becomes withered and useless. Some 
 of the fakirs were sleek and well-fed, and 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 47 
 
 covered with ashes, basking in the sun. 
 Others were thin and wasted, having meas 
 ured their length in the dust some hundreds 
 of miles. Here and there would be one with 
 an iron thrust through his flesh. 
 
 But enough ! With such ideals how can 
 these people be anything but liars, thieves, 
 adulterers, murderers? If enthusiastic Ameri 
 can theosophists would come and see their 
 cult in all its practical workings, they might 
 sing a different song. 
 
 But on to Benares Oriental, crowded, 
 insolent. Fortunately, however, we could 
 not understand the insolence, since they 
 spoke in a tongue unknown to us. The only 
 way to keep them to the smooth and oily 
 manner which we are accustomed to expect 
 in other parts of India is to scatter silver 
 with great prodigality, and this is, of course, 
 impossible to poverty-stricken missionaries. 
 
 First we went to the steps along the banks 
 of the Ganges, where we engaged a queer- 
 looking boat and were pushed out into mid 
 stream. The view was great, and I got some 
 fine snap-shots. 
 
 It was a strange picture, teeming with 
 stranger life. Multitudes were moving up and 
 down the steps, and the brilliant sunlight on 
 their gorgeous garments and reflected from 
 
48 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 the gray-white masonry made a dazzling 
 spectacle. In the river men and women 
 were bathing, or washing their clothes, or 
 scrubbing their mouths, or drinking, or rilling 
 prettily-turned water-pots with the holy water 
 to carry to their homes many of them hun 
 dreds of miles away ; for pilgrims come to 
 the holy Ganges from all parts of the country. 
 
 Upon the burning steps were several bodies 
 in the process of cremation, their feet just 
 touching the water of the river, into which 
 they are cast when partly consumed sure 
 pathway to bliss. The presence of charred 
 corpses and the filth from constant clothes- 
 washings doubtless contribute the flavour so 
 highly prized by the worshipful Hindu ! A 
 cholera germ cannot live in the water, and no 
 wonder! Blessed thing, too, for the land 
 would certainly be depopulated should cholera 
 and bubonic plague form a combination. 
 
 After leaving the river we strolled past the 
 cesspool called the Well of Knowledge, but 
 did not drink thereat ; then we went to the 
 Golden Temple, which foreign devils are not 
 permitted to enter, but they may purchase 
 idols on the outside. All this time we had 
 in our wake a half-clad priest and a sepoy, 
 the former for the purpose of extracting coin, 
 and the latter presumably for protection. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 49 
 
 At a monkey temple up-town the altar was 
 still dripping with the fresh blood of a goat 
 slain as a sacrifice that morning. We feared 
 for our lives as we started to leave the place, 
 for the priests had thrown garlands about our 
 necks, assuring us that most Americans gave 
 no less than a gold piece for such an honour. 
 
 In Lucknow I was impressed by the 
 pictures of all the kings of Oudh, which we 
 ran upon in one of the rooms of a hideously 
 modern clock-tower set up in the midst of 
 ancient Hindu architecture. They are too 
 funny for anything, with their fierce mus- 
 tachios and full skirts, which latter certainly 
 must have been crinolined. I feel like an 
 abridged edition of a Baedeker s Guide- 
 Book, but I cannot nauseate you with the 
 details of all we see as we rush madly from 
 city to city, and from temple to palace. 
 Some things, it seems to me, I can never for 
 get, and with these must you be persecuted. 
 Over all is the dazzling sun, and through all 
 a cold, penetrating wind, which is rather 
 more stimulating than our eternal balminess 
 south of Bombay. 
 
 To me, the only thing of real interest in 
 Lucknow was the old residency and its 
 grounds. The ruins are most picturesque ; 
 only the walls are standing, and they are 
 
50 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 overgrown with ivy. All around are beauti 
 ful trees and green grass, and every now and 
 then you come upon memorial obelisks and 
 monuments to the brave who fell in 57. The 
 siege of this place and its brave defense 
 constitute a story that makes one s heart 
 ache, for there hundreds of English men, 
 women and children took refuge from the 
 enemy, when disease wrought havoc among 
 all, and men were shot in their beds. I could 
 have spent a whole day in the little cemetery, 
 so sad and sweet and still, where are laid 
 away the brave and the fair, whom God 
 Himself must have respected when He saw 
 how much they were able to endure. 
 
 Late in the day we drove through the 
 native bazaar behind a pair of steeds which, 
 to judge by their skin-and-bone appearance, 
 must have been subsisting upon one straw a 
 day. The fact that they finally registered a 
 protest by balking persistently, and that the 
 coachman belaboured them most cruelly, 
 caused us to spring to the ground and turn 
 our backs upon the offenders, only to find 
 ourselves in another dilemma, for there was 
 not a soul near who could speak or under 
 stand English, and we do not know the 
 language of the north. Soon we were sur 
 rounded by a heathen crowd, all of them 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 51 
 
 shouting- directions and advice while the 
 vociferating coachman ordered us back to 
 the carriage. We were helpless, and were 
 beginning to feel considerably frightened 
 when I espied two Eurasians approaching in 
 an ekka. They stopped at my frantically 
 waved hand and helped us out right royally, 
 giving us their own chariot, with explicit 
 directions to the driver. 
 
 An ekka is the funniest thing to ride in 
 you ever saw two wheels, atop of which is 
 a tiny platform, on which you perch a la 
 Turk, while you are shielded from the sun 
 by a shade made of gaily-coloured calico 
 trimmed with frills. The one little pony goes 
 at breakneck speed through the narrow 
 streets, and you have to hold on for dear life 
 to escape being hurled to the ground. 
 
 We spent New Year s Day here in Cawn- 
 pore with the most charming people young 
 missionaries just married. The bride is one 
 of the most exquisitely beautiful Americans 
 I have ever met. 
 
 I shall have to hurry to finish this letter 
 before train time, but fortunately there is not 
 much to tell about Cawnpore aside from the 
 mutiny reminders. At the Memorial Church 
 the soldier guard gave us some of the flowers 
 from the altar, which are placed there fresh 
 
52 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 
 
 every day. The church marks the spot 
 where one thousand English were huddled, 
 exposed to the terrible tropical sun and the 
 deadly fire of the enemy. When they were 
 offered a safe passage to the river, they left 
 all their possessions and proceeded to the 
 boats, but no sooner had they embarked than 
 a murderous fire was opened upon them by 
 sepoys concealed in bushes along the banks. 
 The boats were then fired, and the wounded 
 were burned to death or drowned, while the 
 rest were put to the sword. After Nana 
 Sahib s men were sated with blood, some of 
 the women were marched back to prison, 
 only to be butchered later and cast dead 
 and dying together into a well, over which 
 now broods a marble angel whose face droops 
 slightly on one side with tragic sadness, and 
 smiles on the other with the joy of the resur 
 rection. No native is permitted within its 
 enclosure to this day, nor does a horse ever 
 trot within the cemetery walls. It is the 
 saddest place I ever saw. It is enough to 
 break an American heart how can the 
 English live here at all ? The city is a con 
 stant scene of unrest and riot, hatred 
 smoulders in the breasts of the natives, and 
 scorn in the hearts of the English. 
 
 We start for Agra in exactly one half hour. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 63 
 
 Agra, Jan. 7, /p . 
 
 I have seen the Taj ! Oh, Eleanor, you 
 cannot even dream of the wonder of it ! It 
 looks like a bubble glowing under the bril 
 liant sun, whose fierce rays are reflected from 
 a thousand points. It shone, it throbbed, it 
 seemed to float, and every moment to threaten 
 to vanish from our sight. The effect is in 
 describable. I sat entranced, while my eyes 
 ached with the glare. But within is a cool, 
 quiet light, mellowed by passing through 
 marble screens which serve as windows and 
 make the place a charming retreat. 
 
 The screen surrounding the cenotaphs is a 
 marvel of the filmiest, foamiest lace effect, 
 with delicate borders of flowers inlaid with 
 jade, topaz, mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli, and 
 what not. 
 
 I had always thought of the Taj Mahal as 
 being a tiny bit of perfection, but you have 
 only to see it by moonlight to realize how 
 grand and massive it is. The polished 
 marble surface reflects the soft light until 
 you think there is a halo there ; the silent 
 river rolls past with its mirrored moon and 
 Taj ; the four corner towers reach up to meet 
 the sky ; the distant gateways with their 
 cupolas, the feathered palms of the garden, 
 the fragrance-laden air oh, Eleanor, the 
 
54 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 beauty of it all is oppressive ! Shah Jehan 
 must certainly have loved his " Pride of the 
 Palace." 
 
 Yesterday we met an American globe 
 trotter who has been " doing " India. We 
 asked him if he had yet seen the Taj, and he 
 said, " No, what s that?" " Oh, a tomb," we 
 replied, and the poor fellow, surfeited with 
 Indian tombs, exclaimed, " Uh ! don t talk to 
 me about tombs! .1 have not seen any 
 thing else since coming to India, and I don t 
 want to see another as long as I live ! " And 
 he actually left the city last evening without 
 having seen the most perfect bit of architec 
 ture in the world. 
 
 During our second visit to the grounds we 
 heard another American comparing it with 
 Grant s tomb, quite tipping the balance in 
 favour of the latter. 
 
 Dear old Dr. Hunt, to whom I had a letter 
 of introduction from the McFaddens, has 
 shown us most of the sights, and has been 
 a perfect jewel. Occasionally a young pro 
 fessor from one of the colleges has also ac 
 companied us, and we feel semi-civilized once 
 again. 
 
 I was beguiled into visiting an orphanage 
 oh, dear, the poor waifs ! I would rather 
 be a heathen any day than be shut up in one 
 
A BLUESTOCKING INT INDIA 55 
 
 of those cheerless places. But there was a 
 real attraction there in the shape of a wolf- 
 child a human foundling which had been 
 reared by a mother wolf with her cubs. It 
 was discovered by a huntsman and brought 
 to this place of refuge, but they have not 
 succeeded in teaching it much of anything 
 in this case environment has rather over 
 shadowed heredity. 
 
 Of course we visited the fort, within whose 
 high walls is a wilderness of magnificent 
 carving in red sandstone, marble, and pre 
 cious stones. The pearl mosque reminded 
 us by contrast of the hideous Hindu temples, 
 whose interiors are always dark and for 
 bidding, and out of whose gloom peers some 
 vicious-looking image ; for here all is light 
 and airy ; the whiteness suggests purity ; 
 there are no furnishings excepting the three 
 marble steps which serve as a sort of pulpit 
 for the leader of prayers. One side is open 
 to the air, and at the sunset hour the time 
 of prayer all is beautiful, still, and worship 
 ful. 
 
 Near at hand is Grand Armoury Square 
 aptly called " Place du Carrousel " by keen 
 observers. Here is the hall of public audience 
 and a carved throne upon which the great 
 Mogul used to sit when administering justice 
 
56 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 to the poor dogs who prostrated themselves 
 at his feet. 
 
 In the open court of the palace is a black 
 throne, opposite which the court jester used 
 to sit. There is a long fissure in the black 
 marble, which appeared when some foreigners 
 usurped it, so the natives say, and the bit of 
 iron rust upon it is blood shed by the stone 
 in its sorrow and shame. 
 
 When you see the lovely apartments of the 
 women, all wrought marble and gems, the 
 basins for the fountains, the dear little ve 
 randas and retiring-rooms, you cannot help 
 thinking that the inmates of the harem must 
 have had a jolly good time after all. Still, 
 marble screens and jade would scarcely be 
 the price of freedom to us. 
 
 One afternoon we drove out to Fatepur 
 Sikri, the ancient capital of Akbar twenty- 
 two miles distant. On the way we saw a 
 group of the most beautiful deer not far from 
 the road, looking so timid and proud, with 
 their heads high and eyes alert, that I could 
 have hugged them. 
 
 There are many interesting things at 
 Fatepur Sikri, but if you want to know about 
 them, just buy a guide-book. In the stone 
 floor of the court is laid out a parcheesi board, 
 on which Akbar used to play, using slave 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 57 
 
 girls instead of the wooden men. The house 
 which belonged to his Turkish wife is ex 
 quisitely carved with flowers, birds and beasts, 
 while that which was occupied by his Portu 
 guese Christian wife has a decoration repre 
 senting the Annunciation. 
 
 En route to Bombay from 
 
 Ajmere, Jan. 12, ip . 
 
 Well, Eleanor dear, a few scratches of the 
 pen, and you will have been bored with all 
 the history of our little outing. At Delhi 
 there were more reminders of the mutiny, 
 more tombs, more marble. The only thing we 
 sighed for was the peacock throne, which is 
 no longer in the hall of private audience at 
 the palace within the fort, but graces the 
 royal palace at Teheran. 
 
 As at Agra, the women s apartments are 
 like fairy-land, with their pure white marble 
 all inlaid with designs in cornelia, topaz, and 
 pearl. Delicate marble screens are there, 
 and cool, pillared balconies. Through the 
 centre is a marble channel where living water 
 used to flow, making the mosaics below 
 sparkle and gleam. The baths, too, are 
 exquisite, with a reservoir in the middle of 
 each room in which fountains were once wont 
 to play. 
 
58 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 When we visited an old mosque in the 
 suburbs, we were stoned by some native 
 children because we did not tip liberally 
 enough the raft of urchins and the old man 
 who waylaid us. 
 
 We also drove out twelve miles to the 
 Kutub Minar, where is a solid, wrought-iron 
 pillar, erected in the year 319. Some of the 
 carving on the ancient pillars would make an 
 archeologist crazy with delight, but as we 
 were tyros at that sort of thing, we did not 
 get much out of it. The thing which fasci 
 nated us and froze our blood at the same 
 time was the sight of men and boys hurling 
 themselves into an old well more than eighty 
 feet in depth. They always struck the water 
 unharmed though, and I suppose they 
 must do something to gather in a few 
 pennies. 
 
 As we returned late in the day we en 
 countered throngs of people who were going 
 to, or returning from, a great Mohammedan 
 feast. You never saw such gorgeous 
 costumes on men silken scarfs, gold-broid- 
 ered caps, velvet jackets ; and in all sorts of 
 conveyances carriages, carts, ekkas, dumi- 
 nies, everything. Everywhere were venders 
 of sweetmeats and of " smokes " a festive 
 hooka being placed at the disposal of any one 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 59 
 
 who can pay the price, for which he gets one 
 long, hard, delicious pull. 
 
 Our next point was Jaipur, where we had a 
 right jolly time. Although the McFaddens 
 had given us letters to a pleasant family the 
 McKenzies we put up with two dear little 
 old missionaries or at least one of them 
 answered to this description, while the other 
 was a dear little young one. They took us 
 everywhere. Jaipur is certainly an interest 
 ing city, with its lovely gardens, fine museum, 
 and well-stocked menagerie. I never saw 
 such tigers in my life. Great, splendid 
 creatures one of them just fresh from the 
 jungle, whose roars seemed to shake the very 
 foundations of the universe, and who sprang 
 for us in a mad rage as we approached. My 
 heart quailed within me, in spite of the strong 
 iron bars, and I was glad enough to put some 
 distance between myself and him. Think 
 of meeting such a fellow in the jungle ! 
 
 As we drove home at night a wild boar 
 dashed across the road just in front of the 
 carriage ; it is like living in the Arabian 
 Nights, or like a multi-coloured dream, is life 
 in Jaipur. The streets are wide and hard 
 and smooth ; the yellow, green, blue and red 
 shops are all two-storied ; and such a moving 
 panorama as those boulevards afford ! car- 
 
60 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 riages, splendid Arabian horses with orient 
 ally-draped riders, huge elephants, camels, 
 bullocks, with here and there a cheeta and 
 his keepers oh, I could stand for hours, nay 
 days, doing nothing but watching them. 
 
 The McKenzies had us all to dinner. They 
 live in great luxury, and it does not cost 
 much either, here in India, if one prefers 
 Persian rugs, gold embroideries, brass and 
 wood carvings, ebony and sandal-wood 
 treasures, and all that to the modern conve 
 niences of the West. 
 
 Our host, who enjoys the favour of the 
 Maharajah, obtained one of the royal ele 
 phants for us to ride out to the ancient capi 
 tal the next day. We mounted our huge 
 steed, Rampiere, in great glee. He knelt at 
 the command of the mahout, but even then 
 we had to ascend a ladder to reach the 
 howdah. One of the ladies kept us in con 
 vulsions of laughter with her mixture of 
 Scotch and American, calling our immense 
 beast " Wee Wifie," and crying out with en 
 thusiasm every now and then, " Ain t he 
 cute ! " I wanted to seize the mahout every 
 time he jabbed that cruel-looking iron in 
 strument into Rampiere s neck, but his back 
 looked so non-committal as he sat there just 
 behind the flapping ears that I refrained. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 61 
 
 There is nothing like an elephant s back 
 for point of view ! In the near distance on 
 one side were the trees, domes and minarets 
 of Jaipur, while new views constantly opened 
 before us, until we had passed through a 
 mountain gorge and had come upon a tiny 
 lake of wondrous beauty nestling amid the 
 fortified hills. The royal palace was, of 
 course, deserted, except for a few attendants. 
 It did not differ perceptibly from other 
 palaces, but here we found a valued collec 
 tion of Hindu art, to describe which no 
 words of mine are adequate. If you can re 
 member the days of your childhood, when 
 you depicted upon your slate soldiers with 
 jointless legs and arms, and fair ladies in 
 crinolines, and babes with moon faces, you 
 have it. I could with difficulty maintain the 
 gravity necessary to express my proper ap 
 preciation to the guide, who revered the 
 things as you would one of Raphael s mas 
 terpieces. 
 
 In many respects the Maharajah of Jaipur 
 is quite up to date. He it was who planned 
 the modern city, with its wide boulevards and 
 public gardens. He supports a fine brass 
 band, which plays very well. 
 
 We could scarcely tear ourselves away 
 from Jaipur, but telegrams from Karad in- 
 
62 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 formed us that some of our confreres were 
 suddenly ordered home on sick leave, as a 
 consequence of which every one s work was 
 doubled up, and so we hastened our foot 
 steps towards the sunny south, spending only 
 one day at Ajmere, a pretty little place sur 
 rounded by low mountains. A beautiful lake 
 is cuddled by the hills, and on its banks are 
 lovely pure marble pavilions. Here is a col 
 lege for native princes built entirely of white 
 marble, where the scions of ancient dynasties 
 are taught to play tennis and cricket, great 
 care being taken that they do not incidentally 
 learn anything of statesmanship or the 
 science of government. 
 
 Karad, March /, /p . 
 My dear Eleanor : 
 
 " I do now take my pen in hand to 
 say that I am well and hope this will find you 
 the same," but how long it will remain in hand 
 is not known to gods or men, for you never 
 saw anything like the amount of work we 
 have to compass in twenty-four hours, and as 
 for sleep, that is a luxury which I, for one, 
 am beginning to eschew almost entirely. 
 Furloughs and sick missionaries are contin 
 gencies which must ever be reckoned with, 
 and what with the additional work thereby 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 63 
 
 entailed, and the constant temptation to step 
 into new openings at the proper psycholog 
 ical moment, it is simply more than human 
 shoulders and hearts can carry. Fortunately 
 the missionary enterprise was not instigated 
 nor intended to be carried on by human 
 agencies to the exclusion of the divine, so we 
 always manage some way or other to "get 
 our second breath " and stick to the race 
 until the end. The physical end is surely 
 hastened, however, but it is better to wear 
 out than to rust out, and there is no danger 
 of our rusting in this work. 
 
 With all the rest, I have had the temerity 
 to organize a Y. W. C. A. among the nurses. 
 The girls needed something, for their lives 
 were absolutely monotonous. They have 
 none of the feast and gala days of the 
 heathen, and have had to derive their rec 
 reation from church and prayer-meetings, 
 with never any fun. I could not exist that 
 way. I only wish I had the cash to build a 
 gymnasium for them, with a dance-hall and 
 play-room and everything to do with. 
 
 Well, you could never imagine what a 
 difference it has made in them. We appor 
 tioned the work among the sisters one of 
 them is teaching the girls music, another 
 English, another Bible ; I give them physical 
 
64 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 culture, and Miss Pentup things which per 
 tain to nursing. Once a week we have a 
 little heart-to-heart meeting, and every now 
 and then a tea or something of that sort. 
 The poor things need especially to be con 
 soled for their spinsterhood, for you know 
 single blessedness after the age of twelve or 
 fourteen is considered a curse out here. We 
 cannot have mixed parties because the cus 
 tom of the land does not sanction it, and if 
 we attempted it the boys would range them 
 selves fiercely and superiorly on one side of the 
 room, while the girls would blush and titter 
 opposite, with no hope of an ultimate thaw. 
 
 But they do their physical culture right 
 well, being naturally graceful, and it does my 
 heart good to hear their shrieks of laughter 
 at attempted feats I never knew they could 
 laugh before. Sour faces have become 
 happy and bright ; slow and spiritless obedi 
 ence quick and cheerful ; and irresponsi 
 bility has been replaced by a desire to be 
 trusted. 
 
 And so I have my girls to love and my 
 boys to train. The other day in Sunday- 
 school the moral question arose as to which 
 son did right, he who promised to obey his 
 father and did not perform, or he who refused 
 to obey and later repented. They all insisted 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 65 
 
 that the first, because he was polite and 
 showed respect unto his father, did right. 
 Thus do they regard form and not sub 
 stance. 
 
 You would be amused to see me conduct 
 ing women s meetings in the wards, teaching 
 Sunday-school classes, and telling the chil 
 dren stories, all in my broken Marathi, which 
 they seem to consider very funny, but they 
 are usually too polite to betray their amuse 
 ment until my back is turned. 
 
 Yesterday 1 had an experience which made 
 me feel pretty small, I can tell you. It was 
 one of my first cataract cases ; the woman 
 was absolutely blind, had not seen a thing 
 for years when she came to me. I did the 
 operation on both eyes at one sitting, band 
 aged them, and sent her to the ward. When 
 the day came for the removal of the bandages, 
 I found her in the woman s general ward, 
 which was full to overflowing with patients. 
 She was eager for her release, so I told the 
 nurse to loosen the dressings and then ap 
 plied the counting test. All those women 
 were still as mice, holding their breath to 
 learn if her sight was really restored. You 
 could have heard a pin drop. Holding up 
 my fingers before the long sightless eyes I 
 asked her to count, and she did so : " One, 
 
66 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 three, two, four." The women whispered 
 from cot to cot, " She sees 1 she sees 1 " while 
 the poor patient herself fell at my feet in a 
 transport of joy and gratitude, and embraced 
 them, kissing the hem of my skirt, and call 
 ing me all the endearing names which her 
 vocabulary afforded. She would have wor 
 shipped me then and there, so deep was her 
 feeling, but I lifted her up and led her away 
 to tell her of One who alone is worthy of 
 worship, and whose greatest desire is for her 
 happiness and good. 
 
 Yes, I used to say I was not coming to 
 India to preach, but to practice medicine ; 
 but when an event like this drives you down 
 into the depths of the most abject humility 
 remembering what a mean, selfish, despicable 
 creature you are you just cannot help tell 
 ing the poor ignorant women that after all 
 there is something which is worthy of love 
 and worship, that there is One who is abso 
 lutely pure, and holy, and merciful, and who 
 loves every last one of them with a perfect 
 love. Every body has a soul, and I am be 
 ginning to find out that my chief concern is 
 not, after all, with the body. 
 
 These things are happening constantly. 
 Nothing seems to stir their pulses like a 
 brilliant coup in the surgical line, and it is 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 67 
 
 remarkable how they spread the news of such 
 by word of mouth to the uttermost parts of 
 the earth. One woman comes every week 
 to garland and bouquet the lot of us. It is 
 pleasant to know that our efforts are not un 
 appreciated with the taste of gratitude on 
 our tongues we can give our bodies to be 
 burned with good grace. 
 
 I am becoming thinner and thinner. They 
 say that in India one always goes to one ex 
 treme or the other I think I must have chosen 
 the other. Some of the brethren or sisters, 
 as the case may be, are so fat they can scarcely 
 waddle, while all the rest are so thin as to be 
 translucent. Of course it is not so bad when 
 a conjugal pair balance things by combining 
 opposite extremes, which is usually the case, 
 and right comical do they appear. 
 
 Last evening we had a sand-storm I 
 never saw such a gale ; the atmosphere was 
 opaque in my room I could cut it with a 
 knife and to-day everything is gritty to the 
 touch. 
 
 Outside, so far as the eye can see, is a dry, 
 sandy stretch, but the trees will soon put 
 forth their new shoots, furnishing another il 
 lustration of the reversed order of things in 
 India. Why do they not wait until the be 
 ginning of the rainy season ? 
 
68 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Karad y March //, /p . 
 My dearest Eleanor : 
 
 " The shades of night are falling fast, 
 Upidee, upida," and right glad I am to wel 
 come them after the brassy sky and furnace 
 heat of the day. I am snatching a few min 
 utes to write before taking a plunge into 
 study preparatory to to-morrow s lecture. 
 This time it is physiology. The other day 
 one of the sisters who was a school-teacher at 
 home remarked that it was nothing to lecture 
 on physiology she used to teach it in Pitts- 
 burg. Think of it ! Comparing grammar- 
 school smatter with the real medical univer 
 sity thing for we use the same books here 
 that they do in the medical colleges at home. 
 Why, for to-day s lecture I had to prepare a 
 whole section on anatomy, look up a few 
 pages of materia medica, remember all my 
 college physics, explaining pneumatics and 
 hydrostatics, give the theories for osmosis, 
 and the chemical formulae for haemoglobin, 
 leucin and tyrosin, explain the psychological 
 principles involved in the execution of sundry 
 bodily functions, go minutely into the nervous 
 system, and finally sum up the function under 
 consideration, and then cap it all by the forc 
 ing process of compelling those boys to see 
 the points ! It is all in English, you know, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 69 
 
 and they are naturally a little slow at taking 
 it in. These are the days when I spend what 
 few spare minutes I can get regretting the 
 time wasted while taking my medical course. 
 A few less theatres and late suppers in fact, 
 a general cutting out of larky times might 
 have contributed to turning out a " dig " who 
 understood some of the underlying principles 
 of things. As it is, I have to study until I 
 am black in the face in order to understand 
 the subjects well enough to demonstrate them 
 clearly to the class. 
 
 This morning I had an experience in dis 
 pensary which at first amused, then disgusted, 
 and lastly almost nauseated me. A patient 
 came for treatment, tall and mannish look 
 ing, but wearing women s clothes. I was 
 suspicious of the case, but as it was one re 
 quiring surgical treatment of the shoulder, 
 sent it to the hospital, where it was readily 
 discovered to be a man. I had never heard 
 that it is a common thing in this country for 
 men to take some sort of vow, don female at 
 tire, and thereafter haunt the temple of some 
 goddess which is frequented by women. 
 The same is true of the opposite sex, for not 
 long since a woman in men s clothing the 
 devotee of a god came to the men s dispen 
 sary for treatment. The things which are 
 
70 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 practiced out here in the name of religion 
 make one heart-sick and faint 
 
 To-day is the last day of the Feast of the 
 Holi, a religious festival lasting the greater 
 part of a week. At this time all caste regula 
 tions are set aside, the ordinary restraints of 
 Hindu society are removed, and the whole 
 population gives itself up to the realization of 
 the vilest imaginations. One day is given 
 over to swearing and all sorts of profanity, 
 the reviling of neighbours and friends, and 
 insolence of the most disgusting type ; an 
 other to lying, another to throwing mud, 
 another to throwing red ink, when the whole 
 community looks as if dipped in blood. 
 The grand climax comes on the last night, 
 which is now, and as I write I am glad to 
 have the shelter of four walls, the assurance 
 of protection, a moral heredity, and an en 
 lightened conscience ; for above the stillness 
 of the night come the sounds of heathen 
 revelry, and as I glance out the window I 
 can see the dull glow of flames against the 
 darkness, and I know that out there, in front of 
 a not distant temple, women are dancing and 
 circling around a huge fire, and that prepara 
 tions are being made for the debauchery of 
 the night. 
 
 Is it any wonder that they have no moral 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 71 
 
 stamina, no strength of character, no idea of 
 right and wrong ? And yet here is a civiliza 
 tion centuries old, and a system of philosophy 
 and religion plausible in appearance. Oh, 
 India, India ! how my heart bleeds for thee ! 
 
 A few days ago the Mohammedans also 
 celebrated a feast in commemoration of the 
 offering up of Isaac by Abraham, and be 
 cause a sheep was sacrificed instead, they 
 bought up all the mutton and we had to go 
 without. It is a great land 1 
 
 I had not intended taking any hot season 
 vacation this year, but it is so difficult to 
 find time for language study that I am going 
 to go to the hills for a short time, secure a 
 good pundit, and put in some eight to ten 
 hours a day on grammar and translation. I 
 shall then take my last examination, and if I 
 pass shall say good-bye to pundits for a 
 time. It has meant hard work and applica 
 tion to get it off in six months, but I have 
 had no alternative I am possessed with a 
 perfect frenzy to get all merely preparatory 
 things out of the way, so as to give my 
 whole self soul and body to work for 
 these people. I long to rend the veil be 
 tween us, to come to an understanding of 
 them, to see their point of view ; but every 
 one says it is impossible, that between them 
 
72 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 and us a great gulf is fixed ; we cannot cross 
 to them nor they to us, even after they have 
 become Christianized. It may be so, but I 
 doubt it. At any rate, I shall not leave any 
 method untried to bring myself en rapport 
 with some one of them at least, and if one is 
 understood, that will be a sure gateway to 
 the rest. It is not strange they are per 
 fectly antipodal to us. Their different 
 heredity, history, mental processes, moral 
 nature, climate, training, religion, their 
 fatalism, mysticism, laziness, lack of in 
 itiative, their abstractions, philosophizings, 
 their physique in fact, in no particular can 
 a point of contact be found. But I believe 
 that in a common religion that is, in Chris 
 tianity a point of contact may be found. 
 
 Mhableshwar, May 2j, 19 . 
 If you have ever dreamed a dream of old 
 flesh-potty Egypt! The sun is darkened, 
 the atmosphere is red, every green herb has 
 disappeared, and from all points of the com 
 pass your ear is greeted with the sound of 
 the locust in the land ! Trees which I sup 
 pose to be covered with a peculiar red moss 
 prove, upon approach, to be packed like 
 sardines with locusts. The lovely walks 
 and drives which last year were through 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 73 
 
 bowers of wild-roses and greenery, lead this 
 year only through barren wastes. The other 
 day while out for a long walk I ran into a 
 bunch of them migrating, and I had simply 
 to beat and fight my way along for a distance 
 of two miles. They would strike against me 
 in myriads, into my face and blinding my 
 eyes how many more plagues, oh, Lord, 
 must this wretched land suffer ? 
 
 The strawberries for which this hill-station 
 is particularly famous, and the green vege 
 tables, are only preserved by constant vigi 
 lance on the part of the natives. 
 
 Life still has its compensations, however, 
 and I have many a delightful walk " over 
 the hills and far away." This morning I fol 
 lowed a path leading through a shady glen 
 and along a torrent bed, which is a raging 
 river during the rainy season, to a tiny fall, 
 the music of whose voice recalled that dear 
 little old Brown s Creek where we used to 
 wade and play, and from whose moss-grown 
 logs and velvety banks we used to pluck 
 wild violets and trilliums. 
 
 These remote nooks are always vibrant 
 with life, lizards sunning themselves on the 
 stones, squirrels scurrying to the shelter of 
 the trees. The sweet notes of the Indian 
 thrush break the stillness, while the constantly- 
 
74 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 recurring theme of the bulbul, and the re 
 sponsive quaver of an unknown bird create a 
 perfect antiphony of the woods. 
 
 As I sat on a jutting shelf half-way down 
 the gorge, the clouds crept up from the 
 valley below, first in tiny fragments like 
 scraps of fairy draperies, then suddenly I 
 was completely closed in with the mist, and 
 felt as if I were sitting on the edge of the 
 world. The stillness was intense, broken 
 only by the sad sough of the wind in the 
 trees, and I began to be genuinely frightened, 
 when it all lifted, giving me such a view of 
 the sun taking a nap in a bed of nice, fleecy 
 cloud, and distant range upon range of 
 mountain, with a poor little forlorn monkey 
 whimpering upon a neighbouring slope. 
 
 A week or so ago we had a larky little ex 
 pedition to Pratapgarh, which is an im 
 portant feature in the landscape and also an 
 important historical land-mark, for here the 
 Marathi Empire had its birth in the year 
 1656. At that time the Mogul power had 
 embraced pretty much all of India, but 
 among the brave Marathas rebellions were 
 frequent, outlawry was common, and plots 
 were constantly on hand for the overthrow 
 of the hated infidel rule. Shivaji, a bandit, 
 had kept the country in a turmoil for years, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 75 
 
 yet by his subtle ways and choice lying had 
 succeeded in escaping the clutches of the 
 ruling powers and had even persuaded them 
 of his loyalty. It was finally learned, how 
 ever, that he was collecting a large force in 
 the mountains, and Afzul Khan, a Moham 
 medan general, was sent out against him. 
 As he approached, Shivaji retired farther and 
 farther into the mountain fastnesses, the 
 people seemed non-resistant, and the Khan s 
 progress resembled nothing so much as a 
 triumphal procession. He finally penetrated 
 to the narrow valley beneath Pratapgarh. 
 The time was ripe. Shivaji sent a message 
 savouring of surrender, and asking that the 
 two commanders should meet half-way be 
 tween the camps, unarmed, and with only 
 one attendant, to arrange terms of surrender. 
 Afzul consented, and clad in white, weapon 
 less, and with only a weak old courtier as at 
 tendant, approached the place of rendezvous. 
 But the treacherous Shivaji wore a coat of 
 mail beneath his snow-white robe, and car 
 ried in his false hand a weapon known as the 
 tiger-claw a series of sharp hooks strapped 
 to his fingers, with which he tore out the 
 vitals of Afzul Khan as he went to embrace 
 him. Then it appeared that the bushes, 
 trees, rocks, were all alive with the concealed 
 
76 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Marathas, who rushed upon the enemy and 
 slew them without any quarter. It is said 
 that even the women poured boiling water 
 from the walls of the fort as the Mohammed 
 ans recklessly attempted to scale them. 
 
 Our people simply worship Shivaji. He 
 is their highest type of valour, courage, man 
 hood, and yet he was a robber, a liar, a mur 
 derer and a traitor. With such ideals, what 
 can one expect their own characters to be ? 
 
 The drive in the early morning, down into 
 the valley from Mhableshwar, was a perfect 
 delight. At the foot of Pratapgarh is a cozy 
 little traveller s bungalow, where we lunched 
 and lounged until the sun began to sink in 
 the west, and then began our arduous climb. 
 
 The scenery is magnificent a fertile 
 valley curving close to the bases of the 
 eternal hills, cultivated to the last degree, 
 while jagged and seamed old mountains rear 
 their bulk to the azure sky. 
 
 There is but one approach such a per 
 pendicular hill I never saw and the top is 
 one continuous overhanging bastion, with 
 openings for cannon, and with here and 
 there watch-towers and lookouts. 
 
 Within the fort there is nothing much the 
 usual temple containing some old idol, and a 
 perennial candle-light, a tower or two, some 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 77 
 
 native huts, and a few natives intent upon 
 graft alone. 
 
 The view from the bastion would have 
 held me for hours, but we had to tear our 
 selves away. We flew down the mountain 
 side by the light of the moon, had our dinner 
 at the bungalow, and drove home in the 
 mystic stillness, creeping along the beetling 
 rocks and winding around the jagged pro 
 jections. 
 
 Karad, July 4, 19 . 
 
 And this is the glorious Fourth ! I suppose 
 you are lying low within doors while all the 
 small boys make the hours hideous with 
 their explosions and so-called patriotism. 
 Do you remember how in pinafore days we 
 used to peep in at the bowery dances and 
 watch in glee the gyrations of our country 
 cousins ? And then our imitations ! which 
 brought down upon our innocent heads the 
 reproaches of outraged relatives ! Ah, so 
 long ago ! And no more to be found even 
 in our quiet little town, which in those days 
 depended upon the Fourth for its annual ex 
 citement. 
 
 We have attempted to celebrate the day. 
 At the station dinner this evening we were 
 as stylish and witty as possible, and told 
 
78 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 all our stale jokes, laughing uproariously 
 thereat. 
 
 But there is no use trying to be gay in this 
 letter. We seek to put on a smile, and for 
 get for a brief space our gruesome surround 
 ings, but it is a thing that cannot be done. 
 This country and these people have become 
 a part of our lives, and everything that affects 
 them affects us. Just now the vulture s 
 wings are darkening the heavens, and they 
 are even worse than a brassy sky. This 
 morning twenty-three corpses were found on 
 the road in front of the compound, having 
 died there during the night. And the reason 
 is this : a great pilgrimage has been in proc 
 ess the annual fair at Pandrapur, a very 
 holy city some little distance from here, sit 
 uated upon a very holy river. The papers 
 have it that between three and four hundred 
 thousand people attended this year, some 
 going by rail in the cars fitted up like cattle- 
 pens, in which the rate is less than third-class 
 fare, some in bullock-carts and some on foot. 
 Hundreds who travelled in carts and on foot 
 passed our bungalow, bearing banners, 
 tomtoming on their drums, with constant 
 shouts of victory. To them it was a journey 
 of salvation, and they were filled with a great 
 hope and faith in the benefits to be derived 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 79 
 
 from it. Arrived at Pandrapur, they would 
 crowd in between the temple walls and strug 
 gle to reach the inner precincts, where they 
 could fall at the feet of a stone god and kiss 
 the impression in the stone floor made by 
 the priests, pay their money, and, if they 
 could escape the throngs without being 
 crushed to death, go to the holy river, have 
 a bath, wash their clothes, and take a good 
 drink. Of course there are no sanitary reg 
 ulations there, and it is a perfect breeding- 
 place for cholera and kindred diseases. 
 
 For the last few days they have been re 
 turning, but oh, to what a different tune ! 
 The vultures and crows provide the dirge, 
 and form the advance and rear guard of the 
 endless funeral march. Sometimes there will 
 be a cart whose driver sits up to his task, 
 guiding his bullocks with his stick and hurry 
 ing them by a twist of the tail, while behind 
 him are lying one or two corpses, and one or 
 two sick and dying. Now and then a cart 
 passes whose driver has succumbed, and the 
 bullocks follow along the road according to 
 their own sweet will. 
 
 This evening Miss Pentup and I went for 
 our usual walk towards the river. By the 
 roadside we came upon a woman, seemingly 
 in the last stages of cholera. We approached, 
 
80 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 hoping to be of assistance in some way, but 
 she still had life enough to motion us away 
 she would not be defiled in her last moments 
 by any contact with such as we. She was 
 dying in a holy cause, and gloried in it ! 
 We were helpless before her caste and re 
 ligion, and turned away, sick at heart. She 
 was completely covered with ants, which had 
 already begun the awful work to be finished 
 a little later by the vultures. 
 
 We walked on to the river, and found a 
 cremation in progress, the victim having 
 been a Brahmin, and hence worthy of some 
 attention. He was nicely packed in the 
 middle of a square pile of wood, kerosene 
 had been poured on, and the whole lighted, 
 while two Brahmins marched around the 
 pyre, reciting mystic formulae in Sanskrit. 
 They continued until the skull burst, then 
 took a ceremonial bath in a neighbouring 
 well and went home. Held by the weird fas 
 cination of it all, and unmindful of the gath 
 ering darkness and the approaching dinner 
 hour, we watched the blazing heap until it 
 died down into a mass of glowing coals. 
 
 Some of the pilgrims have applied at the 
 hospital for entrance, but we cannot take 
 them in and expose our patients and the 
 whole plant to this dread disease. We can 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 81 
 
 only advise them to go to the government 
 segregation hospital, which they will scarcely 
 ever consent to do. To such as have gone, 
 we send milk and medicine by the good 
 Christian boy who scrubs the operating-room, 
 and he goes gladly, with never a thought of 
 his own danger. 
 
 Not long since another variety of celebra 
 tion took place a two days feast called the 
 Nag Punch-me, when you see rice and sugar 
 at all the snake-holes, and cobra images at 
 all the shrines. And yet, in spite of the wor 
 ship, the cobra persists in using his fangs 
 we keep anti-cobra serum in the hospital all 
 the time. 
 
 Does it not make you sick at heart ? And 
 to feel so helpless against it all, yet with a 
 terrible conviction that there must be no 
 giving up, that we must fight on to the bitter 
 end! 
 
 Karad, Sept., 19 . 
 
 I am sure, my dear Eleanor, you must at 
 times become extremely weary of my pro 
 fessional shop-talk, but when one s career is 
 made up of the worst tragedies of life, it is 
 rather difficult to talk around the edge. Of 
 course I cannot, in the very nature of the 
 case, tell you many of the particulars of this 
 
82 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 absorbing work out here, nor can I mention 
 many of the individual patients in whom I 
 have become particularly interested. We 
 spend from two to five hours in the operating- 
 room every day, going through the usual 
 routine of cutting, sawing, sewing, bandag 
 ing, and all the rest. Since passing my last 
 language examination in June, I have not 
 done a word of studying, having been com 
 pelled to give all my time to the actual doing 
 of things. I really need ear practice more 
 than anything else, and I am getting plenty 
 of it, in spite of the fact that all the class- 
 work is in English, as well as all the pre 
 scriptions and directions to the nurses. I 
 have not given up my ambition to tackle 
 Sanskrit, however, and shall begin it during 
 my next hot season vacation. It is taught 
 in all the schools here much more commonly 
 than is Latin at home, and it will be perfectly 
 easy to secure a good pundit. You know 
 it is essential to one s sanity to ride a hobby 
 in this forsaken country, and I have about 
 decided that mine will be languages. 
 
 I have had my heart torn to shreds in the 
 last two months over a case which came to 
 my dispensary one morning: a poor, little, 
 wizened, old-looking face, with a timid, 
 shrinking soul peeping out through fright- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 83 
 
 ened eyes upon a cruel world, atop a tiny, 
 immature, mutilated body of ten years. The 
 wicked woman who brought her seemed 
 eager to be rid of her, and offered no objec 
 tions to my suggestion that she remain in the 
 hospital for treatment. The poor little thing 
 was loathsome to touch, and equally so to 
 the olfactory organ. After cleaning her up, 
 we found that she could not be operated 
 upon without some weeks of preparatory 
 treatment and feeding up. So we put her 
 on a course of baths, medication, three meals 
 a day, and attendance at the school for out 
 cast children, which is held back of the 
 compound. She comes from a good caste, 
 which may account for the brightness she 
 displayed as her fear and sickness gradually 
 wore away, and the avidity with which she 
 devoured every bit of learning that came her 
 way. Nearly every morning I would see 
 her poring over her lessons on the back 
 steps of the hospital, and strangely enough, 
 the thing she studies most keenly is the 
 little Testament that I gave her when she 
 began to learn to read. Her young mind 
 is bent upon finding out for itself what it is 
 that has made us her friends, willing to take 
 her in and ready to love her without money 
 and without price. 
 
84 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 After a few weeks her face began to look 
 round and young, and outside of school 
 hours she would help Miss Pentup in various 
 ways about the hospital. Then one day an 
 awful crash came, in the person of her 
 mother-in-law, who, with the most dreadful 
 menace, ordered her to accompany her home. 
 Soondri came running to me in terror, 
 hid herself in my skirts, crying bitterly, and 
 begging me to save her. What the wee 
 child must have suffered in days past we 
 learned from what the old hag said, as she 
 gave out, in a voice shaking with rage, 
 threats of beatings and hair-draggings and 
 other half-killing tortures. I listened dumb 
 founded for a few moments, and then my 
 own wrath moved that woman out of the 
 door and off the compound, with a power 
 which she could not resist. After a few days 
 the husband a great brute of a man, some 
 thirty years of age, with the face of an animal 
 came and demanded his wife. Soondri 
 cowered in a dark corner, trembling with fear, 
 and afraid to come out even after Miss Pentup 
 had disposed of the man. She had finally to 
 lock her up in the linen-room in order to assure 
 the child that her lord and master could not 
 take her away. Indeed, the man came again 
 and again, the last time with a native pleader, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 85 
 
 and then Dr. White, to stop further perse 
 cutions, threatened him with arrest and prose 
 cution if he dared to set foot upon the com 
 pound again. It happened that he was liable 
 to prosecution, having taken his wife unto 
 himself when she was only nine years old, 
 the British law fixing the age at twelve years. 
 
 Well, the man was arrested, and upon the 
 day of the trial Dr. White took Soondri and 
 went to court. When the judges asked the 
 child by which of her household gods she 
 would take the oath, she lifted her head 
 proudly and said that she would swear by the 
 Christians God 1 Was not that a brave 
 thing to do ? 
 
 The hearing brought out the most dread 
 ful things too horrible to put into words, or 
 even to think of that she had suffered. I 
 wonder that she lived through it all ! Dr. 
 White said that the whole sympathy of the 
 court, however, was with the husband they 
 cannot understand that a woman has any 
 rights or any soul, or that a man should not 
 work his will with his own, even to exercis 
 ing the power of life and death. But because 
 the case was brought by a white man, and 
 also because the judge was a rather liberal- 
 minded, philosophical Brahmin head and 
 shoulders above most of his ilk the prisoner 
 
86 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 received the full extent of the law, and was 
 sent to prison for a year. 
 
 Since that time we have enjoyed some 
 sense of security, and Soondri waxes happier 
 and happier every day, confident in our om 
 nipotence. 
 
 I have had to give up wearing my flower- 
 garden leghorn hat to church, for the natives 
 simply cannot become accustomed to it ; they 
 give their undivided attention to it at the ex 
 pense of the sermon, and derive no end of 
 amusement from it. 
 
 The other evening Mrs. White had the 
 students in to dinner, and such a time as we 
 had ! These functions are supposed to be a 
 part of the educational process, but I, for one, 
 despair of ever tacking any occidental man 
 ners upon their oriental customs. Polite ? 
 Oh, yes, their politeness is A Number i, but 
 when it comes to managing soup with a 
 spoon, without audible gustatory apprecia 
 tion, and to cutting with a knife, and convey 
 ing with a fork, it is too much ! It was 
 laughable and pitiful, all at the same time ; 
 the more so, as they had a prospect of leav 
 ing the table ravenously hungry, for they 
 could only play at eating with those fiendish 
 instruments. A propos of which our first 
 assistant, a native, of course, says that the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 87 
 
 reason we are such skillful surgeons is 
 because we handle the knife so well at 
 table ! 
 
 When the rice and curry course came on, 
 we thought it time for the tables to turn, and 
 so we all fell to with our fingers. The boys 
 filled up with speed, being adepts at the use 
 of these implements, while we were most 
 awkward, and did not surround much rice, I 
 assure you. 
 
 The evening was devoted to native and 
 English music on native instruments and the 
 baby organ, and after a most strenuous two 
 hours we crawled into bed, exhausted with 
 the stress of social life. 
 
 Paradise Lodge, 
 Mhableshwar, Oct. 30, 19 . 
 Beloved Eleanor : 
 
 Ah, but I was glad to receive your let 
 ter ! You do not write very encouragingly 
 of sister, but I am sure she will pull through 
 all right I never saw a girl with such a con 
 stitution as hers ! Of course I know she 
 works entirely beyond her strength at her 
 music, but she has such a passion for it ; it 
 would be like cutting off her life to take it 
 away from her. How proud I am to have 
 such a genius for a sister ! I hope she will 
 
88 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 not be ashamed of her old bluestocking when 
 I come home. 
 
 Annual conference is sitting on the hills 
 this year instead of in the valleys, for there 
 is so much plague in our state, and the re 
 strictions upon travel and the quarantine are 
 such that it seemed best to flee to the moun 
 tains, where we could incidentally tone our 
 selves up with a little oxygen. 
 
 You never saw anything like the beauty of 
 the hills just now at the close of the rains. 
 The red earth of the roads winds like a bril 
 liant-coloured ribbon among the forests and 
 compounds, the latter a mass of flowering 
 beds and greenery. As for the woods, they 
 are a perfect dream ! A green veil of fine 
 moss shrouds the banks and braes, wild 
 sweet peas, roses, bluebells, and heliotrope 
 bloom everywhere. The forests are full of 
 the stately white flower of the arrowroot, 
 and as twilight falls, the deadly nightshade 
 spreads its white cup to the moon. Trailing 
 vines creep up the tree trunks, and sweet- 
 voiced birds trill from their branches. 
 
 From our back veranda we can see away 
 out and across Blue Valley, always filled with 
 a mysterious misty haze that always draws 
 me with a wonderful fascination. At hot 
 season time I have often wandered down 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 89 
 
 there to the point where all the blue mist dis 
 appears, and the dazzling sunlight brings out 
 into bold relief every boulder and shoulder 
 and crevice, sparkling on the silver cascades ; 
 but I have never seen it in all the luxuriant 
 growth and bloom of the rainy season, so I 
 determined to steal away down there some 
 sunny afternoon. 
 
 The day came. I cut mission meeting, 
 donned my walking skirt, took a stout alpen 
 stock in my hand, and sallied forth. At first 
 you follow a woodland path leading down 
 hill all the way ; then you travel on the high 
 road for a half mile or so, and then plunge 
 again into the forest. I was in great glee, 
 for I love to walk alone, when I can think my 
 own thoughts and dream my own dreams. 
 I did not meet a soul until reaching the road, 
 when two horsemen cantered by upon the 
 most splendid steeds they were all in shining 
 leather and correct habit, so I knew they must 
 be attaches of the government or officers of 
 the army. I had no difficulty in incorpo 
 rating them into my dream, but they were 
 soon lost sight of in the strange new beauties 
 of Nature which met me at every turn. 
 
 By following a path which skirted the brow 
 of a steep hill I came to an old temple in the 
 wilderness, far from the haunts of men, but 
 
90 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 with faded flowers decorating its altar, and 
 stiff little bouquets before the shrines. The 
 stone gods looked at me severely as I invaded 
 their sanctuary, so I did not linger long, but 
 pressed on towards the brink of my beckoning 
 valley. Once there was a great commotion 
 in the tree-tops, and I saw scores of migrating 
 gray monkeys, leaping from branch to branch, 
 and emitting their peculiar cries. The path 
 wound and doubled upon itself until it led me 
 out upon a high ridge of the valley for a 
 new and wonderful view. All was still : the 
 music of falling cascades was far below, 
 where spraying water gleamed. The sun 
 glinted over a high peak, not a breath of air 
 stirred, occasionally a huge bird swept across 
 the sky, and here and there a drifting cloud 
 made a slowly-moving shadow upon the 
 quiet slopes. 
 
 I sat down to drink it all in ; how long, I 
 do not know, but I must have forgotten time 
 and space and everything else, for the first 
 thing I knew the sun had set, leaving a crim 
 son glow behind, and the mountains were 
 already glooming at the approach of night. 
 I sprang to my feet and fled for all I was 
 worth over the winding path, not allured this 
 time by the darksome shadows of the forest, 
 whose retreats, I knew, sheltered the deadly 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 91 
 
 cobra, the bear and the -tiger. I should have 
 kept to the road after leaving the first forest, 
 but thought to save time by following the 
 shorter path, and flew confidently on, noting 
 how the arrowroot flower gleamed out of the 
 thicket, and how the stars shone with unusual 
 lustre. But suddenly I found myself in a 
 maze of paths worn by animals through the 
 jungle. I followed one, but soon discovered 
 that it was leading down into a valley instead 
 of to the heights, and at a sudden turn the 
 sound of falling water smote upon my ears. 
 I stopped in dismay ; for no stream should 
 be tumbling its waters at that stage of my 
 supposed progress. I concluded to retrace 
 my steps and go home by the long way. By 
 this time the night was black I could see 
 only a few feet ahead of me. Everything 
 became confused a network of paths leading 
 nowhere I knew I was lost ! 
 
 There was but one thing to do to take my 
 direction from the stars, and keep it regard 
 less of paths. With my eyes fixed upon 
 Jupiter I plunged into the jungle. By day 
 light I could never have been persuaded to 
 attempt such a thing, but I could not see 
 what was before me nor realize the dangers 
 which menaced me. I did not recognize 
 hedges of interlaced thorns until I had fallen 
 
92 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 into them, and then I extricated myself only 
 with great patience and care and delay. I 
 knew not the lay of the ground until I had 
 stumbled over stones or slid down abrupt 
 declivities. 
 
 I was torn and lorn, and after falling and 
 reeling and climbing, with scratches and 
 bruises galore, I came to a clearing, over 
 whose stony ground I scrambled in a mad 
 search for a road, but there was none just 
 an interminable wall of jungle ; and I sat 
 down, weary and ready to cry, when suddenly 
 my ear caught the sound of horses hoofs 
 from afar. I held my breath nearer and 
 nearer they came ; there must be a road just 
 beyond the jungle fringe ! As they came 
 opposite me I gave a cry be my rescuer 
 robber, bandit, or what, I would be saved 
 from the unknown dangers of the woods ! 
 Then the hoof-beats became slower, and, 
 happy fortune, an English voice replied. 
 
 He was tall and decidedly English, but very 
 kind. He suggested that I mount his horse 
 as I must be very tired, but I refused when 
 he assured me that Paradise Lodge was less 
 than a mile away, being too excited to real 
 ize how weary I was. So he hung his bridle 
 over his arm, and we walked together under 
 the friendly stars. I found myself dreading 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 93 
 
 the revelation of myself beneath our veranda 
 light, for my hair was all but falling down, 
 my clothes were torn, my face and hands 
 were scratched and bleeding. As it was, his 
 cold blue eyes looked amused as he beheld 
 my plight, but he took himself off in a manner 
 as faultless as was the style of his very correct 
 riding appointments. I was sure he was one 
 of the knights I had passed upon the road 
 earlier in the day, for his bearing was military. 
 Well, the family were not even worried ! 
 They thought I had gone to a neighbouring 
 bungalow, and would be along presently 
 with one of the servants to carry a lantern. 
 
 Karad, Nov., 19 . 
 My dearest Eleanor : 
 
 A pretty kettle of fish I have been in 
 since writing you last ! If variety of a cer 
 tain kind makes life spicy in the foreign field, 
 mine must be an enviable lot ! In the first 
 place, a few days after coming down from 
 mission meeting, we had a snake episode, 
 the mere thought of which even yet makes 
 my blood run cold. We were at tiffin when 
 suddenly Mira, the house-servant, appeared 
 with blanched face and frightened eyes, 
 whispering that there was a large cobra in 
 my room. Whether he had come in by way 
 
94 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 of the bath room water-escape, which is 
 merely an opening in the floor to carry off 
 the bath-water, or had established himself 
 during our absence at the hills, and had just 
 decided to make his presence known, I did 
 not stop to conjecture, but I did take time to 
 shudder at the thought that very likely I had 
 been sharing my room with the reptile for a 
 day or two. Dr. White armed himself with 
 a stout cane, and in spite of his protests I 
 did the same, and followed him into the 
 room. Unknown to us, Mira had provided 
 himself with a good-sized stone, and creeping 
 up behind me, hurled it with all his might at 
 the cobra, just grazing its head. Imme 
 diately filled with fury, it spread that dreadful 
 hood, and rising on its tail, started for us 
 with fangs extended. Mira had crouched be 
 hind my skirts, the missile had been sped 
 from my direction, and so straight at me it 
 came. I cannot tell you the horror of that 
 instant, but it was accompanied by an al 
 most supernatural calm, and I instinctively 
 clutched my stick with the purpose of fight 
 ing for my life; but just at the critical mo 
 ment, Dr. White raised his cane, and brought 
 it down with a quick, sharp blow upon the 
 back of the cobra s neck, and it fell, the neck 
 broken. I was terribly unnerved ! Mrs. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 95 
 
 White said I was perfectly ghastly all the 
 rest of the day, and that night was indeed a 
 nightmare of snakes and struggles and fights. 
 
 Do you remember how we used to run 
 screaming at the mere sight of a little garter 
 snake ? I have never recovered from my 
 fear of their kind, and have been, up to this 
 time, peculiarly fortunate in not coming into 
 contact with any, always closing my eyes 
 and thoughts to possibilities, on the principle, 
 I suppose, that you always find what you 
 look for in this world. To illustrate the 
 truth of which principle I must tell you that 
 Miss Grant, of Madhole, is always hunting 
 snakes, and invariably finds them some 
 times coiled up under the bed, or in her 
 shoe, or in the lee of the bath tub. 
 
 Only two days after the snake episode one 
 of the nurses a new girl whom we had 
 recently taken on decided to avenge herself 
 upon some one by committing suicide. It 
 was an awful tragedy. She swallowed a 
 bottle of strychnia solution, and her convul 
 sions were terrible. We worked over her 
 like mad until she breathed her last, hoping 
 against hope that we might save her after all. 
 
 It is customary among this people to at 
 tempt suicide upon the slightest provocation 
 without any intention of dying completely, 
 
96 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 but as a sort of ruse to excite sympathy, or 
 to perpetrate revenge, as they call it the 
 poor deluded things as if it made such a 
 tremendous difference to any one else after 
 all ! In this case the dose was accidentally 
 too large to leave the victim any possibility 
 of enjoying either her revenge or the sym 
 pathy which she may have succeeded in 
 arousing. 
 
 The funeral was the saddest thing you can 
 imagine. Wrapped closely in a white sheet, 
 she was conveyed in a wooden box on an 
 ox-cart to the cemetery, with a few of us 
 straggling behind no flowers, no beauty, no 
 sweetness, but only stern, grim reality. It 
 was twilight when we laid her away in the 
 little enclosed lot upon the dry, cheerless 
 plain, not a green thing in sight, not a blos 
 som. She was removed from the rough box 
 which could thus be utilized for some other 
 corpse and lowered into her earthen bed, 
 with only the sheet to protect the body. 
 
 Oh, Eleanor, Eleanor ! What did I ever 
 know of life in free, happy America, where 
 our very griefs are dressed up to please the 
 public eye, and all the scars and seams are 
 concealed beneath smiles and honeyed 
 words ? There is no disguising reality out 
 here in this desert place, where no water is, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 97 
 
 and no fresh herb or blade of green grass is 
 seen for eight months in the year. How 
 could mankind be anything but perverted in 
 such a place, amid such surroundings ? 
 
 It is likely to drive you either to the devil 
 or back to God, and I should certainly go 
 mad with it all if it were not for the constant 
 assurance I have within myself that God is 
 right here to help, that the warfare, after all, 
 is His. There is a still small voice out here 
 that I never heard in happy American days, 
 and it is the only thing that makes life worth 
 living. 
 
 Within another three days Dr. White came 
 down with typhoid fever, and the work has 
 been piling up until I do not pretend to see 
 over it no time to worry or to be sad, but 
 just work, work, work, day in, day out, and 
 far into the night. 
 
 The weather seems to be in league with all 
 the rest of the evil spirts, for the heat is ex 
 hausting, and sickening, too, for it goes right 
 to the solar plexus. The sun looks down 
 pitilessly, the sky is brassy and cruel ; crows 
 "caw-caw" ceaselessly around the bunga 
 low, hoarse cries from unmusical tropical 
 birds issue forth from the dry trees, the 
 weird shriek, like a death call, from one of 
 them fairly sets the teeth on edge while the 
 
98 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 
 
 endless beat, beat, of the fiend which must 
 surely be the brain-fever bird keeps up across 
 the way. Nearer at hand is the constant 
 rustle-rustle of white ants under the mat 
 ting there is no telling how soon they will 
 have consumed me and all my posses 
 sions. 
 
 Karad, Christmas Day, 19 . 
 My beloved Eleanor: 
 
 Oh, these tears ! these tears I They 
 blind me so that I can scarcely write, but in 
 spite of them I must tell you how much your 
 sympathy means to me, what a comfort your 
 letter was. I never dreamed for one moment 
 that this could come sister had always been 
 so well, and bright, and happy ; and on this 
 Christmas, all the day long, thoughts of other 
 Christmases have been trooping through my 
 mind, when sister and I were together, care 
 free and gay. The news of her suffering for 
 the last few weeks had made me wild, but I 
 did not dream that death could come. And 
 she so young, so gifted ! And now she is 
 gone. Oh, the pity of it ! 
 
 To think that I am ten thousand miles 
 away and the music of her laughter no 
 longer rings through the old house, her 
 springing footstep is no longer heard in the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 99 
 
 corridors. No longer does she linger over 
 the old piano as twilight falls, her fingers 
 lovingly drawing out the soft cadences 
 prompted by the hour. 
 
 Oh, it is too sad ! But I can only be glad 
 that the suffering is ended, that now she is 
 happy, with a glorified body which feels no 
 pain, that she understands and knows all 
 those things which are mysteries to us. 
 
 These are the days when we learn to pray, 
 when our hearts are overwhelmed. And I 
 still pray for her, forgetting that it can no 
 longer help her, and yet, some way, I can 
 not help breathing that, now she is with God, 
 He will keep her close and very joyful, that 
 the present may make up for all she 
 missed in the past, and many, many times 
 more. 
 
 Such a rare musician she was. But no 
 earthly music can satisfy her, for she always 
 had that of heaven in her ears. How she 
 must love it ! 
 
 I try to think of the place where she is 
 laid, and make it all to suit my fancy, with 
 grateful shade and abundant flowers ; for 
 drifting snow and winds moaning through 
 the tree-tops are unthinkable beneath this 
 burning sun. I hope it is where the sound 
 of the waves breaking on the shore can be 
 
100 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 heard, and where the leaves whisper together 
 in the summer breezes. 
 
 How we learn the lessons of sorrow and 
 loss as life goes on, and how little we are 
 able to bear it by ourselves alone. I look 
 out across the veranda into the open ; the 
 full moon makes the arid landscape a silver 
 sea, and I wonder if ever a flood of light and 
 love will be able to change my life like 
 that. 
 
 But there is no time for weeping unless 
 in the wee hours of the night. The work 
 crowds out the sadness of the days; it is 
 rush, rush, from morning to night and then 
 often through half the night. 
 
 As soon as Dr. White had recovered suffi 
 ciently to travel, I packed him, with his 
 family, off on furlough, which was nearly due, 
 with the expectation that the sea voyage 
 would restore him to complete health and 
 vigour. They will return next December, 
 and in the meantime expect anything or 
 nothing in the way of news from me. For 
 tunately, the students are just now having 
 Christmas holidays, which gives me a chance 
 to catch my breath. With only native as 
 sistants it will be a hard pull, but I have a 
 good helper in Ramaji, who is as faithful as 
 the day. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 101 
 
 Karad, Feb., /p . 
 Dear Eleanor : 
 
 I am wound up to such a pace that I 
 feel as if I could never stop, or if I did it 
 would be "short, never to go again," like 
 grandfather s clock. It would not be quite 
 so maddening if extras could only be dis 
 pensed with, but of course one can scarcely 
 expect that in a medical career anywhere. 
 The daily routine continues unaltered, but 
 the minutes between, which you plan to give 
 to a much-needed snooze, or to reading, or 
 a bit of music, or exercise, you have to use 
 in rushing instead off to a case in town, or 
 in flying to the hospital in an emergency, or 
 in breaking your neck bending over a 
 microscope to settle a questionable diagno 
 sis these incidentals are the last straws 
 which break the camel s back. 
 
 Last week Thursday I received a telegram 
 from the Merwins whom Dr. White had sent 
 to the hills some time ago. Mrs. Merwin, 
 overcome with the long strain and anxiety 
 of caring for her sick husband, had com 
 pletely collapsed, so I planned to take the 
 first train at eight o clock in the evening. 
 You can imagine that I did a land-office 
 business in the intervening hours. To get 
 off all the necessary correspondence, to finish 
 
102 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 up the surgery, to leave specific directions 
 for every patient, to complete all necessary 
 laboratory work, to reiterate directions for the 
 evangelistic services, to bring records up to 
 date, and leave everything shipshape, meant 
 steam-engine processes to say the least. 
 When train time came I was as unready as 
 possible, and could only throw a few books 
 and necessities into my suit-case, slip my 
 warm winter suit on over my muslin frock, 
 seize my medicine bag and run. By gallop 
 ing all the way our poor little bony horses 
 made the train, and I settled down for the 
 night. Long before we reached my station, 
 at two o clock in the morning, I was quiet and 
 full of plans. I try to control circumstances 
 and my work, and not let them control me, 
 but when there is so much to be done one 
 can scarcely avoid a spirit of haste. I see 
 my finish though, if I do not calm down a 
 little and secure more sleep. I wonder how 
 long one could keep the pace and sanity 
 with insomnia? From Watar I had to drive 
 forty miles in the mail-tonga, a perfect con 
 trivance for human torture. Every few 
 minutes the driver would wind a blast on 
 his bugle like the knell of the Angel Gabriel 
 awakening the dead. As we ascended, the 
 mercury dropped lower and lower, and from 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 103 
 
 a hot summer day of twenty hours before, I 
 found myself, upon arrival, blue and shiver 
 ing with the cold. All that day and night 
 and the following day I worked with my 
 patients, and then, having heard of the 
 arrival of a government civil surgeon, I sent 
 for him, placed the cases in his hands, and 
 started for Karad in the late afternoon, just 
 as the sun sank behind the purple mountains, 
 lighting up the rim of sea forty miles distant 
 with a crimson glow like wine. 
 
 I had hired a private tonga to bring me 
 down, and we flew along the descending 
 road as if possessed of wings. 
 
 Half-way down the mountains is a Con 
 gregational mission where is located a 
 Wellesley girl I know ; there I stopped for 
 dinner, and a right jolly time we had. At 
 nine I called up my coach and started under 
 a full moon for the midnight train. The 
 driver and runner whispered together a good 
 deal as we got under way, but I thought 
 nothing of it until the former started out 
 upon a certain and very suggestive tack, 
 saying he could not possibly make the train 
 and asking what I would do in such an 
 emergency. I assured him that it would 
 really make very little difference to me, as I 
 should love to return to my friends whom 
 
104 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 we had just left and spend Sunday there, 
 suggesting, however, that he whip up his 
 horses a little. After a while he revealed 
 his plan by inquiring how much money I 
 would put up if he arrived on time. In 
 reply I intimated that the horses had better 
 hustle. Meanwhile the glances he gave me 
 were intended to congeal my blood with fear, 
 and they nearly succeeded. 
 
 After a time a different subject was intro 
 duced, and my blessed driver told me tales 
 of the carnage and theft that had been per 
 petrated on that road, saying that soon the 
 robbers would appear, seize him, and do 
 what they pleased with me and the tonga. 
 This was one too much. Reaching for my 
 medicine grip I deliberately drew forth my 
 five-shooter, and letting the moonlight glitter 
 murderously along the silver barrel, I aimed 
 it at an imaginary thief and told the driver 
 never to fear, I would protect him. I would 
 shoot dead on the spot any one who dared 
 to molest us. At that moment a weary 
 pedestrian appeared in sight, and taking 
 aim, I asked if he were a thief and if I should 
 fire. The man at the lines cried out in 
 trepidation and besought me not to kill, as 
 the creature was but an inoffensive farmer. 
 
 At every wayfaring man I flourished the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 105 
 
 gun they, of course, being quite unconscious 
 of their imminent danger but the effect 
 upon Monsieur the driver was quite magical. 
 He assured me that he feared nothing with 
 me and my weapon so near, and besought 
 me to put it back into the bag, which I de 
 clined to do, 
 
 He was scared to death, the atmosphere 
 cleared, the horses fairly flew, and we arrived 
 in good time. 
 
 How was that for a bluff ? I shall never 
 cease to bless that little revolver ! 
 
 I reached Karad in the early morning, 
 snatched a little sleep, and have been work 
 ing like a Trojan ever since. 
 
 There has been little time to think, or to 
 dream, or to be sad, but sometimes my " finite 
 heart yearns " so in the stillness of the night 
 that it seems to me I must give it all up and 
 fly home to you all, or die. It is a strange 
 life which leads to the separation of loved 
 ones by distance and death. But we are 
 learning its stranger lessons or at least I 
 am line upon line : how real it is, how 
 earnest, what its goal is. 
 
 Karad> March 25, /<? . 
 All that is necessary for a Turkish bath to 
 day is to linger for a few moments on the burn- 
 
106 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 ing ground under this burning sun. The ther 
 mometer, however, registers only ninety-eight 
 degrees in the shade, and that is frosty weather 
 compared with one hundred and twenty. 
 
 It was good of you to send the fashion- 
 book. I am wondering if you were instigated 
 thereto by the little snap-shot I sent you, and 
 if my style is so very terrible. I continue to 
 dream that the clothes I brought out with me 
 are in the height of fashion sad will be my 
 awakening when the day arrives for me to 
 enter once more the bounds of civilization ! 
 How absurd the style-plates appear. The 
 charmingly graceful sari which the women 
 of this country wear, and which never changes 
 from generation to generation, has so fasci 
 nated me that I only regret the impossibility 
 of adopting it as my own costume. 
 
 The students have just finished their 
 examinations you would be amused at their 
 English, but it is difficult to give you ex 
 amples which are not of professional flavor. 
 How is this " First act of metabolism is to 
 take in, as food." " The function of the 
 cerebellum is the coordination of the muscles 
 staggering gait." 
 
 They have done remarkably well, consider 
 ing their lack of English in the beginning, 
 and the difficult nature of the medical vocab- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 107 
 
 ulary. I am so proud of them, that I am 
 ready to burst, and they also are quite puffed 
 out with appreciation of themselves. After 
 it was all over they celebrated the occasion 
 by giving a play. They are natural actors, 
 completely free from self-consciousness, and 
 yet with a fine eye for effect, and they enjoy 
 nothing better than entertaining an audience 
 far into the night. 
 
 The next morning I took their pictures, 
 and they all " looked pleasant " in the most 
 accommodating manner. Their combination 
 of the oriental and occidental is most pleas 
 ing; they never see me without jerking off 
 their hats they would as soon think of sit 
 ting in the presence of the queen as of me 
 they spring to serve me at the slightest prov 
 ocation. Yet this in a land whose customs 
 demand the removal of the shoes as a token 
 of respect, and make woman the natural 
 servant and burden-bearer of man. 
 
 The same day I took a picture of the 
 nurses sitting in a row, with parted hair and 
 folded hands. The dear, timid, self-effacing 
 girls how they, too, have grown. 
 
 March 26th. 
 
 Ye gods and little fishes ! My servant 
 has turned out to be a well-developed leper 
 
108 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 and not a soul has known it. And he has 
 been on familiar terms with all the household 
 appointments, to say nothing of washing the 
 dishes and serving at table. Do not think I 
 am worrying about myself not a bit of it ! 
 But I could weep for him, poor boy. He 
 could not understand why he must go and 
 live apart, but it had to be done. He is a 
 tall, handsome fellow, not showing the dis 
 ease on his face or hands at all, and he has 
 always taken great pride in his personal ap 
 pearance. Now he must go out-of-doors to 
 work, and I have helped him to fit up a little 
 matting hut where he can live by himself. 
 It must be perfectly dreadful to feel that no 
 one wants you near, and that every one is 
 afraid of you. He will eventually, I suppose, 
 become an inmate of the leper asylum near 
 by, which is under our jurisdiction. 
 
 You ask how it feels to live on intimate 
 terms with smallpox, leprosy, cholera and 
 plague. Well, we do not stop to think of 
 feeling, but just forge ahead, do the thing 
 that turns up next the best we can, and then 
 rush on to something else. 
 
 To add to my trials and tribulations, a 
 dear little Christian boy who had been very 
 ill in the hospital, but had reached the con 
 valescent stage, was stolen away last night 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 109 
 
 by his heathen grandmother. She will have 
 buried herself in the fastnesses of heathen 
 dom and there will be no use trying to search 
 her out. The mother, who is a Christian, is 
 frantic. 
 
 This is a patchy letter, but I have been con 
 stantly interrupted. 
 
 Mhableshwar, May 25, 19 . 
 By turning my head slightly on the pillow 
 I get a lovely sea-green view of mountains 
 which would be all high lights and purple 
 shadows if the green bamboo curtain at the 
 door did not give its own tinge to all things 
 beyond it. A lovely breeze is stirring the 
 tree branches and eliciting a melodious squeak 
 from my half-hinged back door. For here I 
 am flat on my back, taking rest cure with 
 overfeeding. Do not dream for a moment 
 that I am taking a hot season vacation. Not 
 I ! Life is too strenuous for any such dally 
 ing, and I am not shirking the white man s 
 burden. I had to come up four days ago to 
 operate on a missionary, and while he con 
 valesces I take the cure ; which means that I 
 have my meals in bed and spend five days 
 lolling thereon, except when I have to rise to 
 make a professional call upon this same 
 brother. Ten days attention to him will 
 
110 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 suffice, and then I descend to that place which 
 is like unto Hades, where hot winds tear up 
 the works from dawn till dark, and where 
 even the adder and cockatrice seek coolness 
 and a refuge from the burning sun in the 
 dampness of my much besplashed bath-room, 
 though the mercury stands at only one hun 
 dred twelve in the shade. 
 
 The mists have been rolling up these last 
 few days, following in the wake of some very 
 severe storms. The views have been magnif 
 icent the whole sky black save for a rim of 
 light where the sun sets, which burnishes up 
 the mountain peaks and gives the whole 
 landscape the most wonderful tinge. The 
 colour of the atmosphere has been a study ; 
 not exactly green or saffron, but as if painted 
 with an invisible brush, and I feel like stretch 
 ing out my hand to touch it, or to stir it with 
 my finger. The bulbuls come to bathe in the 
 pools of water standing in cups of rock just 
 beyond the veranda. 
 
 June 2d. 
 
 The picture which I enclose is in celebra 
 tion of my departure from the rest-cure, gay 
 as ever, having given dull care the go-by for 
 a few brief days. It was taken in a moun 
 tain fastness known as Arthur s Seat, thus 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 111 
 
 named for reasons known to heaven alone ; 
 for so far as sitting purposes are concerned it 
 is simply impossible. Who Arthur was or 
 why he risked his life by attempting such a 
 pose, is beyond my ken. 
 
 The fat man is a professor from a Bombay 
 college, whose face runs down with water at 
 the mere sight of a woman, in whose presence 
 he at once begins to puff and look about for 
 a way of escape. Hence I am very fond of 
 him, and enjoy nothing better than talking to 
 him tete-&-tete while studying the triumphs of 
 perspiratory glands. He is a good old soul, 
 nevertheless, and brainy. 
 
 The fierce one is another professor of the 
 same college. His murderous expression is 
 not due to an intent to kill, but to the sun 
 shining directly into his eyes. I will not 
 vouch, however, for his mental state he 
 doubtless thought Miss Pentup and me 
 " pushing," as " most Americans are," and 
 we may have pushed at that particular mo 
 ment, as there was no place to .stand or sit, 
 and a sheer precipice below of I do not know 
 how many feet. 
 
 These are precious days at the hills how 
 I dread the plains again with their intermi 
 nable grind ! To-day the wind is howling 
 among the trees, making it seem like No- 
 
112 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 vember at home ; every evening a mass of 
 cloud hangs over the hills like a pall, and the 
 mists shut out the world beyond our stone 
 wall. Whenever I go through the woods I 
 find at least one beautiful orchid clinging to 
 a moss-grown tree, and the ground is dotted 
 with white jacks-in-the-pulpit. 
 
 Yesterday a friend and I clambered down 
 a gorge where monkeys were playing ; kites 
 were soaring in the blue, birds were chirrup 
 ing in the trees, and away down in the depths 
 of the forest below us two whistling school 
 boys were idling away their time and finger 
 ing the marbles in their pockets. You must 
 know that the whistling schoolboy is a bird 
 with the most ravishing notes I have never 
 heard anything so rich and full and melodious 
 in my life. As we sat there on a rock, ex 
 pectant, still, breathless, we caught a glimpse 
 of one, deep blue on head and neck and 
 black beneath. 
 
 I go down Wednesday. Report says the 
 plains are suffocating, 
 
 "But women must work and men must weep, 
 Though rain be hidden and dust be deep." 
 
 Karad, June 29, 19 . 
 My dear Eleanor : 
 
 Two weeks ago one of the brethren 
 pumped his bicycle tires full of water and 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 113 
 
 started out to sprint, mercury at one hun 
 dred and ten degrees. He had not gone far 
 before the heat of the sun-scorched soil trans 
 formed his water into steam, and the whole 
 thing blew up with a great explosion. The 
 brother still lives to tell the tale. 
 
 But all that is changed now ; the thirsty 
 land has become a pool, and the burning sun 
 is hidden behind a blanket of cloud. This is 
 the season I love, the time that I can sleep 
 and sing and be happy. A bulbul has built 
 his nest in the vines which run over the ve 
 randa and makes every morning glad with 
 his little song of praise. Mrs. Bulbul sits on 
 her eggs nearly the whole day, and soon 
 some little birdies will be stretching out their 
 scrawny necks and opening their absurd lit 
 tle bills for food. Every day I scatter crumbs 
 in the vicinity of their home and they are be 
 coming quite neighbourly. 
 
 At the risk of boring you terribly with 
 more shop, I am going to tell you of a case 
 which interested me very much. It was a 
 new experience for me in the eye line. It 
 seems to me that I must have done by this 
 time every operation which can be done upon 
 the eye, and cataract extraction is a daily oc 
 currence, but this was a couched lens. In 
 remote parts of the country where Western 
 
114 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 science has not as yet penetrated, are native 
 doctors or hakims who often operate on cat 
 aracts. They thrust a fine needle through 
 the cornea, tip the lens over so that one end 
 floats back into the vitreous, while the other 
 comes forward into the aqueus. This leaves 
 about half of the pupil clear and gives the 
 patient fairly good vision. The sequellse are 
 never good, however, for the operation is al 
 ways followed sooner or later by inflamma 
 tion and total loss of vision. 
 
 The case of which I write had not only the 
 lens couched, but it contained a calcareous 
 deposit, and the iris was adherent to it all 
 around. 
 
 I had operated on the other eye a few days 
 before with a perfect result, but when one is 
 in this shape you have to make a very large 
 incision and go in with a scoop. In this case 
 the adherent iris held the lens back, and it 
 simply refused to deliver, but finally the cap 
 sule broke, I fished out all the debris with 
 scoop and iris forceps, and the patient has a 
 splendid eye. Surgery is getting to be an 
 old, though always interesting, story to me, 
 but when something unusual like this comes 
 along, it stirs up my ambition not a little. 
 
 I shall never forget how a cataract extrac 
 tion used to impress me in the old days of 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 115 
 
 interning in the hospital at home. In the 
 light of experience I can even be amused. I 
 never wanted to have anything to do with 
 one, I was so afraid of it, but I always watched 
 every step with the eye of a cat, fairly hold 
 ing my breath until the safe delivery, and 
 then gazing with worshipful eyes upon the 
 paragon of skill who had accomplished such 
 a feat 
 
 And the after treatment ! The patient, 
 not permitted to raise his head for three days, 
 was fed through a tube and all that, while we 
 permit our patients to walk from the operat 
 ing-room unless there is something unusual 
 to contraindicate it, and to eat his regular 
 meals and amuse himself as best he can. 
 
 The hospital is full, but I manage the work 
 very well in this weather, though I am sure 
 if it were dry and hot I should be completely 
 distracted. Ramaji is such a splendid help, 
 following me about like a faithful dog, and 
 carrying out my orders and wishes to the 
 letter. Now and then, when there is time, I 
 help him with his English and mathematics, 
 for he is studying for the government matric 
 ulation examination, hoping to work out an 
 arts degree in the dim and distant future. 
 He is a splendid Sanskrit scholar and gives 
 me some aid occasionally, though I do very 
 
116 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 little studying except for the medical lec 
 tures. 
 
 There comes a call, so au revoir for a 
 space. 
 
 Two days later. 
 
 It was a frightful case of which I cannot 
 tell you, but which made even me, practiced 
 hand that I am, shudder and grow cold 
 a patient brought tardily to me to ward off 
 death with my Christian instruments and 
 antisepsis. But do you know, these cases 
 alone furnish plenty of raison d etre for mis 
 sions. The successful treatment of them 
 opens an avenue whereby Christianity, clean 
 liness, hygiene, physiology, and civilization 
 may be marshalled in, though the marshall 
 ing process depends very vitally upon the 
 amount of time the missionary can eke out 
 for simple lecturing now and then. There 
 ought to be a course of illustrated lectures 
 carried on from day to day for the benefit of 
 the convalescents. 
 
 But I must not weary you with any more 
 shop. Instead, here is variety for you in the 
 shape of " A Narrow Escape from Death by a 
 Mad Bull." As a matter of fact, there was 
 tremendous danger, but Miss Pentup and I 
 are so accustomed to meeting all sorts of 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 117 
 
 animals in our walks that we never think of 
 being afraid. 
 
 We were resting upon the parapet of a 
 bridge, which crossed an empty river-bed 
 some twenty feet below, watching the throngs 
 return from the bazaar, when a magnificent 
 bull, led by his owner, espied us. The sight 
 seemed to arouse all his Eastern prejudice and 
 antipathy and he swooped down upon us with 
 snortings and flashing eyes. 
 
 Miss Pentup slipped around the end of the 
 bridge and down the slope of the river bank, 
 but I was not in a position to do that and so 
 could only execute some sort of a somersault 
 over the parapet, to which I clung by my 
 finger nails. The beast was within a foot of 
 my face, but the man interposed, and while 
 beating him back with a stick, seized me by 
 the arm and dragged me up over the bridge, 
 fearful, no doubt, that I would be killed if I 
 dropped down to the stony river-bed. 
 
 While the infuriated creature chased my 
 rescuer down the road I managed to stagger 
 into hiding beneath the bridge, where Miss 
 Pentup and I cowered until the bellowings 
 and pawings ceased, and we saw the hero 
 of the hour lead away his vanquished 
 property. 
 
 When we emerged we reflected each 
 
118 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 other s pallor, I imagine, and I still feel my 
 bruises. 
 
 If I can discover who our brave rescuer 
 was, he shall have a reward. 
 
 Karad, Aug., 19 . 
 My dearest Eleanor : 
 
 I did not intend to let so long a time 
 pass before answering your delightful letter, 
 but you know how it is with me, so no ex-, 
 planations are necessary. If you could see 
 me doing not only my medical work and lay 
 ing down the law to coolies and servants, but 
 attending to all sorts of business and cor 
 respondence, sending telegrams, writing 
 orders and checks, paying bills, and I do 
 not know what all besides, you would wonder 
 how I ever find time for a friendly chat with 
 my old girl. 
 
 You certainly seem to be making a success 
 of your literary career I cannot tell you 
 how thoroughly I enjoyed your last book. 
 See that you do not fail to send me a copy of 
 every one. You seem to have harnessed up 
 literature and matrimony into a pretty good 
 team, both trotting along at a most satisfac 
 tory pace. May the gods be with thee ! I 
 gloated over your bright newsiness, regarded 
 with respect your common sense, and tried to 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 119 
 
 swallow your sage advice. But there is no 
 use talking about living upon the interest of 
 one s health capital in this climate and with 
 this work. It is impossible. I have already 
 used up my interest and have begun to draw 
 only too surely upon my capital. My hope is, 
 however, that an occasional outing with com 
 plete rest from my labours will be sufficient to 
 restore the capital periodically. 
 
 There is no rest for the wicked at present 
 nor until the Whites return from furlough. I 
 am beginning to anticipate their arrival by 
 having the bungalow whitewashed and re- 
 matted. 
 
 Little Nancy, the baby at the manse, has 
 just recovered from a severe illness, and they 
 think I am the whole thing for having pulled 
 her through. I should have died if she had, 
 for the anxiety which comes from treating 
 missionaries is more wearing than anything 
 else I have. There have also been sick chil 
 dren at a neighbouring station, and I have 
 had to drive over there every day for two 
 weeks. The Merwins I have sent to Australia. 
 I pleaded with them to go home to America, 
 but they refused because they knew they 
 would not be returned. Their hearts are in 
 their work, they have practically laid down 
 their lives for it, and they wish to complete 
 
120 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 the sacrifice by dying in it. As a matter of 
 fact I do not know what they would do if 
 they did return to America, unfitted for any 
 occupation there as they are, unless it were 
 to take up their abode in a charitable institu 
 tion, which would indeed be a pity. And he 
 with all those degrees, to say nothing of his 
 culture and braininess, and she with a voice 
 which might have brought her a fortune ! 
 
 Well, as I could not sit down and see them 
 die, I compromised on a sea voyage, and 
 they consented to go to Australia. It is sure 
 to accomplish something for them. 
 
 Many of our missionaries are at the point 
 of breaking down. They think they must 
 remain in the field the whole term unless 
 actually bedridden, so they go on and on un 
 til they reach the breaking-point and then 
 snap goes a good and well-trained man or 
 woman. It is strange that the Board does 
 not see how much more economical it would 
 be to insist upon a missionary s taking a good 
 long furlough say once in five years and thus 
 keep him able to work throughout a long life, 
 than to be constantly having to set aside ex 
 perienced preachers, teachers, and physicians 
 for health reasons and as constantly going to 
 the expense of equipping and training new 
 ones. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 121 
 
 I can put my finger on six people who 
 practically have one foot in the grave, and 
 yet they are planning to remain out here an 
 other year because they think they must. 
 
 The strain upon them all is terrible. Each 
 one doing the work of ten men in this climate 
 and amid these unnatural conditions. You 
 cannot imagine how the life affects one. 
 With our peculiarities accentuated from failure 
 to rub up against our own world, we all be 
 come queer and freaky and full of notions. 
 
 But to return to the weather ; snakes are 
 everywhere. The other night I took out my 
 mandolin for the first time in months, and 
 after I had played a little, all sorts of creatures 
 centipedes, spiders, crickets, and what not 
 came to the concert. They were not very 
 welcome, however, and I soon fell to slaying 
 them. 
 
 Day before yesterday Miss Pentup and I 
 were out for our usual constitutional, when 
 we met two men going at a great rate on 
 camel-back you know the camel is a very 
 fast trotter and we fell upon our faces and 
 entreated the boon of a ride, which was 
 granted with very good grace and elaborate 
 salaams. The sensations are something 
 fierce. You know the beast kneels for the 
 riders to mount ; but the rising thereof ! It 
 
122 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 is like the rearing and plunging of a storm- 
 tossed ship, with first a lurch to starboard 
 and then a lunge to port. But finally we 
 found ourselves in the air and borne along 
 the king s highway at a slow and stately 
 pace. We were not a little alarmed by the 
 vocal expressions of our noble steed and the 
 inquisitive and disapproving turnings of his 
 head, but were reassured by the driver, who 
 led him by a rope attached to a sharp iron 
 that had been thrust through the poor 
 beast s nose. 
 
 Karad, Sept.> 19 . 
 
 I am just home from a dinner-party, and 
 the unwonted dissipation renders me com 
 municative to a degree. It was given by 
 one of the nurses, and the guests besides 
 myself were two sisters, the native pastor, 
 and the head chemist. I was enthroned 
 upon the only chair in the room, while the 
 others occupied boxes and the floor. The 
 first course, consisting of some sort of sweet 
 stuff served in long white streamers, and 
 prepared by pressing a sweet dough through 
 a porous basket which has previously been 
 scoured with holy cow-dung, is considered a 
 great dainty, and I ate a bit of it with con 
 siderable relish, not having learned until 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 123 
 
 afterwards the technique of its preparation. 
 The second course was rice and curry, the 
 latter so hot with red peppers and various 
 seeds that it burned all the way down and 
 for a long time afterwards. Then came thin 
 cakes of special Indian make, and lastly, pan- 
 suparri, which renders the lips and tongue a 
 fiery red and contracts the mucous membrane 
 of the mouth like alum. 
 
 The head chemist is an elder in the church 
 you ought to see him. He looks like a 
 fiend incarnate, and occasionally indicates 
 that appearances are not always deceiving. 
 His sins are those of Bluebeard. At the last 
 communion service he thought to remove 
 every objection from the taking of the com 
 mon cup by carefully wiping the rim of the 
 glass with his pocket handkerchief after each 
 individual sipping. That article was terribly 
 soiled and wrinkled, but his intentions were 
 good there is no doubt of that. 
 
 To-day such a pitiful little case came in 
 a child whose arm had grown fast to her 
 side as the result of a burn. It is a common 
 thing for them to fall into the open braziers 
 of coals which the natives have in their 
 houses, it never occurring to the parents 
 afterwards to pay any attention to the way 
 healing and contraction are taking place, 
 
124 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 until they have a marked deformity. This 
 arm had to be dissected up and skin-grafting 
 done, and the remarkable thing about it all 
 is that the mother offered her own skin for 
 it. In all the previous cases of this kind 
 which we have had, I have never seen such 
 an instance of self-sacrifice. 
 
 The monsoon has not amounted to much 
 on the whole, and one hears all sorts of dire 
 predictions about famine. The heat makes 
 the work triple the burden, and we are all 
 just about worn out. Miss Pentup looks 
 like a corpse, and the nurses are simply 
 worked to death. The other day one of 
 them fainted while helping me in the operat 
 ing-room. 
 
 Karad, Oct., 19 . 
 
 I am as blue as a whetstone and wish that 
 the whole world had a single head that I 
 might chop it off at a blow ! It is work, 
 work, work, from dawn till dark, without a 
 single pause excepting for hurried meals. It 
 does seem as if all the people would eventu 
 ally get themselves cut and sewed and give 
 us a rest. I love my work, and the harder 
 it is and the more of it, the better my soul is 
 satisfied, but it is more than one s body and 
 mind can endure with never a respite, and it 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 125 
 
 is pretty difficult to do everything justice in 
 such a rush. 
 
 You say it is madness, and advise me to 
 let the extras slip, but that is impossible. If 
 you were here you would understand that so 
 long as you are able to crawl you cannot re 
 fuse to minister to these poor, suffering, 
 hopeless specimens of humanity. 
 
 The children s hospital is full to overflow 
 ing, babies in the beds and all over the floor, 
 shrieking until the place is a perfect Bedlam. 
 Pathetic? Well, if you want real pathos 
 without any alloy, just come and take a 
 glance at their poor little shrunken bodies, 
 some deformed, most of them half-starved, 
 with their drawn, pinched little faces, and 
 patient, solemn eyes. Sometimes I rush out 
 in a mist of tears, and go back to the 
 helpers quarters to restore my equilibrium 
 by playing for a few brief minutes with the 
 nice little brown rolls of fat which demon 
 strate the quality that India can produce in 
 anti-starvation circumstances. 
 
 Last week I had to go up to Poona on 
 business, so I took occasion to run down to 
 Kedgaon to see Pandita Ramabai and her 
 work. I was charmed with the Pandita. 
 She is rather short and stout and always 
 wears the native sari in white. She has a 
 
126 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 round, pleasant face, lighted with keen, blue- 
 gray eyes which can look volumes of love 
 and sympathy when occasion offers. Her 
 dark hair, now threaded with silver, floats 
 back from a noble brow which shelters a 
 mine of learning and wisdom. Of course 
 you know her history how she was the 
 daughter of learned Brahmin parents, who 
 taught her as they would a son ; how she 
 was left an orphan during one of the terrible 
 famines, and wandered, starving, from shrine 
 to shrine throughout the length and breadth 
 of India. Then she lectured upon the condi 
 tion of Hindu women ; went to England ; oc 
 cupied the chair of Sanskrit in a woman s 
 college there, and at the same time pursued 
 studies in English and mathematics ; she was 
 converted to Christianity ; visited America ; 
 and returned to India with money for a work 
 for women. Her books, her lectures, her 
 prayers, her labours have wrought greatly. 
 She has now an immense plant at Kedgaon, 
 with good buildings, schools, and industrial 
 instruction, where more than fourteen hun 
 dred girls and women are cared for. 
 
 At present they are having a great revival 
 in their midst ; you never saw anything like 
 it. About a thousand of these girls get to 
 praying aloud all at once, and all a different 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 127 
 
 prayer. Some have writhings and some 
 shudders and convulsions, while occasionally 
 one falls upon the floor senseless. They say 
 that the movement is attended with great 
 demonstrations visions and dreams, tongues 
 of fire, and speaking in unknown languages. 
 Certainly the effect upon the girls, spiritu 
 ally, has been most remarkable, transform 
 ing lives and character in a marvellous way. 
 
 Karad, Dec., 19 . 
 
 The Whites have been back three weeks. 
 You can imagine how glad I was to see them 
 and to turn over some of my responsibilities. 
 As a matter of fact, however, my actual work 
 is not lightened at all, for the patients are so 
 numerous that we have to keep going up to 
 the limit, and with much more help would 
 scarcely get any time to breathe. When I 
 make my rounds at night I have to pick my 
 way among the patients sleeping on the floor 
 and carefully step over them, so crowded are 
 we. In the operating-room we have not yet 
 found a solution for our difficulties. At first 
 I assisted Dr. White with his operations, and 
 then he assisted me with mine, but that con 
 sumed so much time that we are now run 
 ning two tables at once, dividing the instru 
 ments, internes and nurses, and keeping 
 
128 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 things humming generally. I like it tre 
 mendously, and feel that I have found my 
 sphere in life. There is nothing in all the 
 world like a surgical career, and I can 
 scarcely think or speak of anything else, a 
 fact of which you are doubtless only too well 
 aware by this time, if you judge from my 
 letters. I am planning to go away soon for 
 a week s rest and recreation, having received 
 yesterday a letter from the husband of a 
 G. P. (grateful patient) containing an invita 
 tion to the mountains, with a shooting ex 
 pedition in prospect. It did not take me 
 long to decide to cut loose for a few days 
 from the diseases of women and children, 
 lectures, anorexia, insomnia and neuras 
 thenia, for the sake of taking a rest on the 
 mountain top. 
 
 We are enjoying the full fruitage of the 
 scant rains, for not only has the price of 
 grain tripled, but a water famine has over 
 taken us. The fields show drooping, sickly 
 crops, the plants and vegetables of our own 
 compound have withered away ; the hospital 
 is smelly and steamy, the wards reeking 
 with unwashed patients. What little water 
 we must have is drawn a long distance on 
 carts, and is as precious as silver or gold. 
 
 At Shahapur the beautiful gardens are a 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 129 
 
 wilderness of dry sticks ; it will require years 
 to restore them to their original beauty. 
 Cholera has been raging there, but is better 
 now only forty deaths a day, while a week 
 ago the average was one hundred and one. 
 The water famine is the cause of it all. It is 
 a wonder the government would not put in 
 some irrigating works, instead of which, 
 however, the Maharajah has set up a golden 
 image on a hill whither the people flock to 
 worship. A few sanitary measures would 
 also be quite appropriate to the time and 
 season, but that does not occur to the royal 
 mind. 
 
 Karad, Jan., 19 . 
 Dear old Girl : 
 
 Whenever I stop to think of it I am 
 sick and faint with an exultation which seems 
 the most unreal thing in all this unreal life 
 out here. But I must tell you all about it 
 from the beginning. I went to the moun 
 tains and had my shooting expedition as 
 longed and planned for. The day of the 
 hunt dawned bright and clear ; a stiff breeze 
 blew up from the east, but it would have 
 taken more than an east wind to chill my 
 ardour, for in my veins was leaping a great 
 excitement. 
 
130 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Reports of my professional prowess had 
 reached the indulgent ears of the Chief of 
 Vishalgurd, who forthwith called upon me 
 with all his retinue, bringing for my use all 
 manner of shotguns and rifles and ammuni 
 tion, and a noble steed to convey me to the 
 edge of the jungle. So on this day, aglow 
 with the primitive impulses of the chase, I 
 made ready for the fray, donning my only 
 coat silk-lined and white kid gloves last 
 American remains stout shoes and a solar 
 topee. With glee I mounted the steed and 
 joined Mr. G. P. and son Bobbie aged 
 twelve and a half-dozen other knights of 
 the chase. As we proceeded on our way the 
 party was frequently augmented by sombre, 
 blanketed figures, which arose out of the 
 ground and silently plodded along in the 
 rear, until the procession numbered some 
 hundred odd individuals. 
 
 At the edge of the jungle a halt was called, 
 the blanketed spectres cast off their robes and 
 stood at attention, wearing black skin and a 
 belt. Much good-natured parley ensued as 
 they were divided into groups to begin their 
 howling and beating of the jungle. I looked 
 on with a smile. Time was when the mere 
 sight of one of these fierce-looking moun 
 taineers would have filled me with a haunting 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 131 
 
 fear, but now I would trust any one of them 
 with my life. 
 
 It was a strange scene. Mine was the only 
 white face, and I sat my horse amusedly in 
 the midst of that gesticulating, laughing, 
 hideous mob, while the mountains reared 
 their bristling summits far above, and in front 
 stretched an almost impassable jungle. 
 
 The groups of beaters separated in various 
 directions, while the shooters moved on to 
 vantage-points. After fording a swiftly-flow 
 ing river I bade farewell to steed and coat 
 and gloves, and taking my gun by proxy of 
 coolie, began to trudge the narrow path in 
 the rear of G. P. and son. The jungle was 
 made up of magnificent trees and festoon 
 ing vines, where natural arbours invited one 
 to a cool rest, and spreading branches shielded 
 from the burning sun. High up the slope 
 beside a brook-bed we sat down to wait ; above 
 was a leafy canopy, on every side stupendous 
 trees with trunks creeper-clad. A white or 
 gandie butterfly, trimmed with black silk 
 polka dots, fluttered near, while another of 
 black chiffon poised delicately among the 
 green, and a brilliant-hued humming-bird 
 flashed from flower to flower. In the midst 
 of the stillness my ears caught the sound of a 
 deer sharpening his horns upon the body of 
 
132 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 a tree. As the cry of the beaters was raised, 
 fat jungle fowl swept slowly and heavily 
 along just above our heads, giving a plain 
 challenge to the guns. Three graceful deer 
 came leaping over impassable fastnesses, and 
 the sound of shot mingled with the yells of 
 men, the smell of powder with the odour of 
 wild-flowers. 
 
 After that we had a dinner of meat, curry 
 and rice, rested in the grateful shade for a 
 time, and then started for another jungle, for 
 our blood was up and we sighed for more 
 worlds to conquer. We had scarcely entered 
 the thicket when suppressed exclamations 
 announced evidences of a recent tiger prowl. 
 There were the tracks / 
 
 Up and up we went through a path cut by 
 a coolie s sickle, the shooters dropping off one 
 by one to take post in a low tree or dense 
 underbrush to await the prey. On a great 
 rock with a commanding view Mr. G. P. 
 and I perched. " Don t expect a tiger," he 
 said as he handed me my gun ; " they are 
 gotten by decoy and stealth, but the beaters 
 will likely scare up another deer." 
 
 The fierce sun beat down upon my back. 
 On a distant hillside I could see monkeys 
 playing tag in a tree. After waiting what 
 seemed an interminable time the voices and 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 133 
 
 din of the beaters were borne to us upon the 
 breeze as they gradually narrowed their 
 circle, closing in towards the central rendez 
 vous. Then there was a crash of underbrush, 
 a huge tawny creature swept majestically into 
 the open space below. My head swam. The 
 atmosphere suddenly took on that intense 
 calm which accompanies the advent of a 
 crisis. The controlled excitement, the alert at 
 tention, the sharpening of all the faculties, gave 
 me the feeling of a near tragedy, while at the 
 same time I became unusually conscious of the 
 rubbing of grasshopper wings, the twittering 
 of birds, and scarlet jungle flowers in striking 
 contrast to the brown desolation of the thicket. 
 As he caught sight of us he stopped short 
 with his tail lashing his beautiful sides and 
 his eyes turned up malevolently towards us. 
 Quicker than thought I had brought my gun 
 to my shoulder at G. P. s whispered " Aim," 
 and as the yellow eyes gleamed on either side 
 the barrel, I pulled the trigger and took him 
 square. He gave one awful howl of rage 
 as he staggered up, lowering his head and 
 crouching for a spring. In the meantime 
 G. P. thrust his own gun into my hands, 
 and as the wounded fellow fell back from the 
 face of our rock, against which he had struck 
 in his mad, blind leap, I put two more bullets 
 
134 A BLUESTOCKING IH INDIA 
 
 into him, and sank back, weak and quivering. 
 Mr. G. P. dashed down the side of the rock, 
 tearing through underbrush and falling over 
 obstacles in the wildest excitement to the 
 place where my tiger lay weltering in his 
 blood, the sun picking out the fulvous stripes 
 of his top side as he lay stretched in his last 
 sleep a fallen king. 
 
 Soon the beaters and others came up and 
 had a great pow-wow over his dead majesty ; 
 whiskers and claws were appropriated as 
 charms and souvenirs, but the skin is mine 
 all mine, and you shall lay your face upon its 
 beauty when I bring it home. 
 
 At sunset time came the tramp homeward. 
 A prospect of dinner and sleep lured us to 
 human habitations. The sun touched the 
 ridges with a parting glow the long shadows 
 of dying day overspread hill and tree ; the 
 evening air was heavy with the fragrance of 
 the jack-fruit blossom ; curious bulbuls tipped 
 their cocked hats to us as we wearily straggled 
 along, while a bird-of-paradise waved the long 
 white satin ribbons of his tail in last farewell. 
 
 Karad, Feb., ip . 
 
 What a land of sudden tragedies is this. 
 How sweeping her calamities, how complete 
 her disasters. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 135 
 
 To-day a pitiless sun looks down upon 
 another new-made grave in the desolate little 
 tract of land which we call a cemetery the 
 last resting-place of dear Mrs. White. And 
 even there all that was left of her to earth 
 could not be permitted to sleep in peace, but 
 the hallowed place must be desecrated by a 
 heathen mob, the pitiful little indications of 
 love in the shape of flowers and wreathes and 
 wooden slabs for monuments must be torn 
 and scattered, and the fresh-made mound 
 levelled with the earth. I am sick at heart, 
 crushed ! I thought I was before, but this 
 last has taken my very life, it seems to me. 
 After all that she and her husband stood for 
 in this place, and his work, to think that they 
 could be so base, so ungrateful ! You see 
 the cemetery stands in the shadow of an old 
 mosque, where once a year the Mohammedans 
 go in great throngs to worship, covering the 
 plain and bowing their foreheads to the dust 
 as they cry " Allah, Allah," as it has been 
 done for hundreds of years, at the same place, 
 with the same mosque rearing its mysterious 
 ruins in the midst of them, changing only in 
 its increased decay from year to year. 
 
 We had supposed that in a sudden access 
 of zeal, and to show their defiance and hatred 
 of the Christians in the most violent way 
 
136 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 they dared, they had invaded our sacred 
 plot, but they aver that the Hindus did it 
 under cover of the Mohammedan feast. 
 
 We have not pressed the question, but have 
 sorrowfully mended the damaged grounds, 
 wetting with our tears the barren soil where 
 nothing grows. 
 
 Oh, this terrible land ! The burning days, 
 the brassy skies, the winds like blasts from a 
 furnace ! With the cruel, cruel vultures ever 
 spreading their loathsome pinions to swoop 
 down upon us even before we are dead. I 
 could never lay one of my loved ones in that 
 city of the dead, whose walls are guarded by 
 carrion-hungry birds, whose stony alleys are 
 the haunt of every venomous thing. 
 
 It seems ages that we have lived with this 
 awful pall upon us, this shroud of death which 
 refuses to lift, but it has been only a matter 
 of days. 
 
 But three months back from the homeland, 
 she was so refreshed and animated and gay, 
 doing little kindnesses here and there for 
 every one and devoting herself especially to 
 sick missionaries, of whom we had some 
 half-dozen here. It would have broken your 
 heart to hear one of them pray for her, who 
 had ministered so divinely to him, at the 
 meeting for prayer we had on that awful day. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 137 
 
 For there was but one day from three in the 
 morning until nine in the evening every 
 thing which minds could think of and hands 
 could compass was done, but cholera must 
 have its victims and death his harvest. . . . 
 
 Almost immediately was heard the sound 
 of the carpenter on the veranda fashioning 
 the rude coffin, which early in the morning 
 was covered with black cloth by the tailor, 
 and lined with white. Flowers came from 
 the state gardens and all the mission bunga 
 lows within reach. I hurried about as if in a 
 nightmare, with dry, burning eyes and 
 parched lips, with never a thought of break 
 ing down, even when I, at the organ, had to 
 carry the singing alone while every one else 
 gave way to sobs. Dr. White was terrible 
 in his calm, but when at the last he pressed 
 a passionate kiss upon those cold, unrespon 
 sive lips, and rained tears upon that still, 
 marble face, I could have shrieked. 
 
 They had come out in their honeymoon 
 days, young and eager. She had borne 
 equal burdens with him in founding the work, 
 nursing in the hospital, and even in scrubbing 
 and cleaning that all might be aseptic for the 
 dawning surgery. What with that and the 
 birth and death of little ones, her health was 
 completely undermined, and for years she 
 
138 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 had been a semi-invalid, until the last few 
 months of her life. 
 
 The same day the dear though but little 
 baby of the Stewarts died in Shahapur, and 
 none of us was there to help or comfort. 
 
 But though our hearts are heavy, there is 
 no time for grief. There were twenty-six 
 operations yesterday, with wards full to over 
 flowing, and more clamouring to enter. 
 Coaching the students and reviewing for 
 final examinations, keeping things stirred up 
 spiritually among the Bible women and 
 nurses all these things I suppose hasten the 
 closing of our open wound. 
 
 But I have no feelings of sweetness or 
 softness or submission. I am consumed with 
 a sort of horror ; I scarcely know the drawn, 
 white face that looks back at me from the 
 mirror. Within, I am all ragged edges and 
 irritability you do not know what a fiend I 
 feel. When I come home if I ever do 
 to rest my mean, ugly head upon your lov 
 ing breast, you will be disappointed and sad 
 to find that your girlie is such a beast. 
 
 Karad^ March, 19 . 
 My dearest Eleanor : 
 
 Your Frida has been to the bottom of 
 the abyss, but is beginning, after many days, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 139 
 
 to bob up serenely again. I have been ill. 
 I thought I was going to die, and 1 reckon 
 I did pretty nearly. It was a sensation, I can 
 tell you, but when you are convinced that it is 
 inevitable, a great peace comes into your 
 soul and you would a little bit rather than 
 not. After that phase passed I would lie 
 there on the bed for hours, too weak to lift 
 my hand, and dream of home and loved 
 ones, the tears streaming from my closed 
 eyes, while I dully wondered if, after all, life 
 was worth the struggle, and telling myself 
 how much easier it would be just to let go 
 of the threads which held me, and " drift 
 away to the silent sea where the muffled oar 
 was awaiting me." 
 
 Girlie, I would burst if I did not have you 
 for a safety-valve, but you will forgive my 
 being just a woman without a career for a 
 bit, frail and shattered, longing and loving. 
 I will get over it when my strength comes 
 back. 
 
 I wonder what you are doing are you 
 thinking at all of your far-away Frida ? 
 
 A very disjointed letter is this I am writing 
 in bed, and am propped up with pillows. 
 Yesterday I sat up for a while and was rather 
 too gay generally, which is probably the 
 reason for my present languor, 
 
140 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Nasturtiums blow their sweet breath to me 
 from the table near how sweet and dear 
 everybody is to me. Mrs. Pritchard has been 
 my devoted slave, waiting upon my slightest 
 wish, getting ice for me from Belgaum, and 
 fruit from Poona and Bombay ; I certainly 
 ought to be sweet and patient among such 
 kind and loving friends God has been very 
 good to me. How we are brought face to 
 face with the fact that the wicked old world 
 is full of good people after all, who are ready 
 to inconvenience themselves to help one bear 
 trouble of any kind. 
 
 You do not mean to say that you expect 
 me home at the end of five years ? It is the 
 policy of this mission to send its members 
 home only when their health is ruined and 
 they are no longer able to work, or at the 
 end of eight years. They are then returned 
 to their friends and relatives for nursing and 
 support, with absolutely no means of liveli 
 hood except that which may be inherent in 
 them to sponge successfully. How do you 
 like the prospect, eh ? 
 
 To-day my boy has put things to rights a 
 little, and what do you think he found in my 
 hat, which had hung undisturbed on its peg 
 these many weeks ? A field-mouse with a 
 large family of little ones, her nest having 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 141 
 
 been made of bits which she had chewed from 
 my frocks suspended from neighbouring pegs. 
 The mice were slain without mercy and I 
 shall have to retrim the hat for style s sweet 
 sake the coming hot season. 
 
 It is the month of marriages the sound 
 of tom-toms comes to my ears all day long, 
 and I know that little girls are being bound 
 to old men, and that, to satisfy the demands 
 of custom, the fathers of daughters are going 
 into such debt that they can never extricate 
 themselves. So is the round of folly and 
 grief and tragedy kept up. 
 
 You say Beatrice has drowned her prima 
 donna ambitions in matrimony. Can it be 
 that I am the only one who is true to her 
 career ? But it has its price, like every other 
 love ; the law of compensation never fails. 
 
 In a day or two I shall begin on the stu 
 dents with written quizzes and examinations 
 from my room. Pediatrics will be the first 
 subject. Then, as soon as I am strong 
 enough, Miss Pentup and I start north it is 
 already one hundred and eleven degrees in 
 the shade. We shall rest a few days in Bom 
 bay, spend a short time in Simla, take a run 
 to the frontier, risk wild Pathans, and then 
 have our real holiday in [Kashmir. Every 
 one predicts dire things for our return journey 
 
142 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 if we come before the monsoon breaks, for it 
 is not safe to travel in the heat of the day 
 through the Central Provinces. One must 
 lie off in travellers bungalows which are 
 supplied with tatties and punkahs and must 
 travel only at night. 
 
 There is talk of transferring me to Shahapur 
 after that, where I will not have such hard 
 work. It will break my heart to give up my 
 students and nurses and surgery, but I shall 
 have the consolations of society, for there are 
 a few military officers with their families 
 living there, besides others ; but society will 
 be little compensation for the work for which 
 one s heart is burning out. I feel, someway, 
 that it all means farewell to my career in 
 India. I can never be content in a less work 
 than this, and yet there is nothing upon 
 which I can put my finger as an accomplished 
 thing. The patients with whom I have 
 come in contact ; the five hundred or more 
 operations that I have done, ranging from 
 the most delicate eye surgery to amputations 
 and sections ; the little suffering children I 
 have coddled and treated ; the Y. W. C. A. 
 with its classes and improved spirit among 
 the girls ; the age of chivalry among the 
 students, with their improved English and 
 careful work ; the dependableness of Ramaji 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IK INDIA 143 
 
 and other assistants, have not been due to 
 my own efforts exclusively, for I could not 
 have compassed any one of them alone. 
 Nor do I know positively of any converts 
 from heathenism due alone to my prayers or 
 words of instruction and love. But God 
 knows. Perhaps I am overly eager to get 
 some credit for myself, but after three years 
 of tireless labour it is discouraging to feel 
 that nothing has been really achieved. 
 I am tired now good-bye. 
 
 Simla, April, 19 
 My dearest Angelica : 
 
 I am feeling so fine, all bundled up to 
 keep warm in a little, low-ceilinged upper 
 room of a tiny Swiss chalet tucked in the 
 side of a Himalayan mountain. Breezes 
 which have blown over snowy peaks come 
 in at the windows and give us a smell of the 
 eternal snows. I have been hoping to secure 
 some pictures of things as they are to send 
 you, but the cold weather has frozen up all 
 my machinery, and the screw of my kodak 
 refuses to turn. My hot water-bottle has the 
 stopper frozen in so that it will not budge. 
 Everything in my medicine case is reduced 
 to crystal, and as for my nose, the less said 
 of its purple hue the better ! 
 
144 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Quite a contrast this, to the one hundred 
 and twenty degrees in the shade through 
 which we passed in the Central Provinces ! 
 
 Coming up the mountain the third-class 
 coaches are divided into three compartments, 
 separated from each other by iron bars sug 
 gestive of a jail arrangement. The middle 
 one was occupied by a Mohammedan woman 
 with her children, all clad in brilliant colours, 
 and chewing the betel nut, whose crimson 
 juice they dextrously squirted out of the 
 window. The woman had thrown back her 
 bourkha, revealing a pretty face, with mid 
 night eyes set wide apart, a short nose from 
 which hung a golden pendant secured in 
 each nostril by a golden screw, full, curving 
 lips, and ears pulled out of shape by huge 
 rings on which were suspended silken balls. 
 
 While watching interestedly this product 
 of the Orient, we saw a sudden expression of 
 horror cross her face, as she noticed for the 
 first time two English soldiers in the com 
 partment beyond. Though they paid no at 
 tention to her whatever, her Moslem modesty 
 could not endure such proximity with un 
 covered face. But the thought of lowering 
 her bourkha, and obtaining air only through 
 the two little mosquito-netting squares for 
 the eyes, was equally unendurable, so she 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 145 
 
 compromised by suspending this garment 
 from the wire parcel receptacle above. It 
 refused, however, to lend itself to the perpet 
 uation of the purdah system and draped it 
 self just so that the soldiers, whose attention 
 had now been drawn, could see her frantic 
 efforts to avoid them. Her futile struggles, 
 the despair in her pretty face, the assistance 
 rendered by her solemn, fat children, were 
 decidedly too much for our gravity, and we 
 shook with suppressed laughter. 
 
 In the meantime we had been steadily as 
 cending ; the palm had given place to the 
 stately pine, and the rhododendron flared its 
 scarlet blossoms against the clear sky. Soon 
 we found ourselves seated in jinrickshas and 
 borne by nimble men to our destination, 
 Skipton Lodge. The government had just 
 come up from Calcutta, so the narrow, steep 
 streets were thronged with fine Arabian 
 horses and rickshas, for only two carriages 
 are permitted in Simla those of the Viceroy 
 and the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 If remaining here for any length of time, 
 one may send cards to Viceregal Lodge and 
 invitations will be forthcoming to various 
 functions, but we are not looking for that 
 sort of thing. Walks, picnics, and bazaar 
 explorations have filled the days thus far, 
 
146 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 which must be few, as we are eager to pass 
 on to Kashmir. Yesterday we went to see 
 the opening sports of the gymkhana, where 
 the horsemanship displayed was superb ; the 
 Viceroy s sixteen-year-old daughter tired out 
 two fine steeds, while she herself appeared 
 as fresh as ever. 
 
 I am feeling quite myself again all I 
 need to set me up is plenty of cold weather. 
 
 Later. 
 
 The mail has come from Karad the first, 
 after all this time. One letter is from Ramaji, 
 which reminds me of an incident which you 
 must know, since you are my father confessor. 
 
 The afternoon before leaving Karad I went 
 up to the laboratory to see a blood specimen 
 which Ramaji had mounted. If you were 
 interested in malaria parasites I would dilate 
 upon the beauty of those changing red cells, 
 but you are not, so I shall have to content 
 myself with telling you that I enthused over 
 them ad infinitum. Suddenly I chanced to 
 look up, and then I discovered Ramaji s 
 gaze fastened upon me with such a burning 
 expression of love, passion, adoration and 
 despair, that for a moment I was startled 
 quite out of my senses. I arose to go, 
 whereupon he seized my hand with incoher- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 147 
 
 ent words. I freed myself and walked away 
 with great dignity, but words can never tell 
 you what was going on inside. To think 
 that my faithful Ramaji could have forgotten 
 himself like that ! I have practically ignored 
 the fact that he has a human nature like the 
 rest of us, and have treated him frankly as 
 my faithful subordinate and friend, depend 
 ing upon him in times of stress, and assist 
 ing him with his studies as I could. I sup 
 pose that my illness, and his not having seen 
 me for so long, aroused his apprehensions 
 for my welfare. Here is his letter, without 
 date or heading. 
 
 " After a long period of silence between us 
 I desire to open conversation by drawing 
 aside the veil of gloomy attitude. I know 
 and I believe this will be a poison in your 
 sacred services. I had a great mind to see 
 you personally, but my ill health and yours, 
 too, did not allow our meeting, yet this vast 
 and broad gulf of separation could be crossed 
 over by means of correspondence. We are 
 kept so busy during the day and a great part 
 of the night that we have to give up thinking 
 of our most dear and sweet friends. I be 
 lieve you are enjoying your present business, 
 and hope you could have enjoyed it more in 
 company of your friends." 
 
148 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 As I have said before, Ramaji s soul is 
 woolly white; he has been indispensable to 
 me in the hospital work, faithful to all his 
 duties, and capable to a degree. I would 
 have wished to keep his friendship. 
 
 Siranagar, Kashmir, May, ip . 
 Beloved Eleanor : 
 
 I should have dated this letter " Heaven/ 
 for the absolute peace, beauty and grandeur 
 of the surroundings, combined with the per 
 fect rest and a delicious languor which per 
 meates one s very soul, as do also the fra 
 grances and bird-songs borne upon the clear 
 air make life one enchanting dream from 
 which it were cruel to be awakened. 
 
 We were weary enough, to be sure, for a 
 deserved rest ; for two hundred miles sitting 
 in a tonga twelve hours out of the twenty- 
 four, travelling at the rate of seventy miles a 
 day, are not usually conducive to other than 
 stiff muscles and a fagged spirit. All the 
 way, however, we had our compensations. 
 The air was tonic. The Jhelum River went 
 foaming and eddying over the rocks, send 
 ing up a cool mist, and whispering tales of 
 snows, eternal solitudes, and vast silences in 
 the great heights whence it came. Some 
 times it roared through a rocky canon whose 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 bottom we could not see, so sheer and so 
 close were its walls. Small streams leaped 
 down from the heights to swell its volume, 
 now and then floating out in lacy falls to the 
 road, and then under picturesque bridges to 
 the river below. 
 
 Words cannot describe the beauty of that 
 drive ! Sometimes the road led through a 
 passage cut out of solid rock ; the precipi 
 tous walls at our side would now be dripping 
 with moisture, now covered with maidenhair 
 ferns. Snow barriers shut us in before, the 
 mountains had interlaced to cut off our re 
 treat behind ; but the road, crawling along 
 the sides of the steep slopes, curving in and 
 out, always found the way on and up the 
 Jhelum Valley. 
 
 At last we came to the place where the 
 narrow pass widens into the Vale of Kashmir, 
 with its level green expanses, where the blue 
 iris flowers riot, buttercups lift their faces to 
 the sun, and scarlet poppies flaunt them 
 selves brilliantly against the azure sky ; where 
 the turbulent river is widened to a placid 
 stream, and the road stretches ahead like a 
 white line between rows of tall, straight 
 poplar trees. 
 
 But the things we found at the end of the 
 road were like the pot of gold under the 
 
150 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 rainbow s tip, for we are living in house 
 boats in the most ideal fashion, with an Eng 
 lish woman who keeps a boarding establish 
 ment on a fleet. There is the large boat, 
 wherein are dining- and drawing-rooms ; a 
 small house-boat, and two doongas, besides 
 small runabouts or shikaras. Miss Pentup 
 and I have a doonga consisting of bedroom, 
 sitting-room and veranda, and the others 
 are occupied by six young English women, 
 whom we have found most companionable. 
 One of them we call the Duchess, and they 
 have already decided my nationality to be 
 French, in spite of my American twang. 
 
 And so we have rested and lounged, drink 
 ing in the soft, cool air, our senses lulled by 
 the gentle lapping of the waters against our 
 boat as some skiff is paddled near, laden 
 with exquisite embroideries, rugs, wrought 
 copper and silver, or carved woods, or papier- 
 mdchk, and manned by a striking-looking 
 Kashmiri vender, who plots the financial ruin 
 of his victims beneath his polite and insinu 
 ating exterior. 
 
 Our boat-mongers live in the rear of the 
 boat three generations of them ; but though 
 we hear the babies cry, we never see them 
 unless we call the men or women the latter 
 magnificent-looking creatures to punt us up- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 151 
 
 stream, or paddle the small boat upon a 
 short excursion. They live upon the boat 
 both summer and winter, and when chilly 
 blasts sweep down from the hills, they warm 
 themselves by tying baskets of coals about 
 their waists beneath the flowing kimonos, 
 and comfort themselves with the festive 
 hookah. 
 
 We have climbed Takt, a mountain hard 
 by the town, for the view. We have paddled 
 up and down the river, on whose banks are 
 ancient temples picturesquely situated in the 
 chenar groves, and have idly watched the 
 pretty native women and children working 
 or playing in the water in front of the royal 
 palace. We have been to Dhal Lake, through 
 Apple-tree Canal and floating islands where 
 the air is blossom-fragrant in June into the 
 open waters whose clear depths reflect the 
 purple peaks of the Mha Dev, whose banks 
 were a fit place for the " Feast of Roses," 
 whose gardens were aptly called the " Abode 
 of Love." l 
 
 At the present writing we are punting up 
 the river to Islamabad, between curving banks 
 where cows browse in green pastures, stately 
 herons fly low in the blue, and rainbow colours 
 flash back from snow minarets and spires. 
 
 LallaRookh. 
 
152 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 House-boat on the Jhelum, June , 19 . 
 
 Arrived at Islamabad, we were suddenly 
 seized with a madness to explore Liddar Val 
 ley and set foot upon the Kolahoi Glaciers, 
 and five o clock the next morning saw us in 
 the saddle, with the boat-monger for cook 
 and a tiffin basket between us and starvation. 
 For the first three miles I was in such con 
 vulsions of laughter that I could scarcely sit 
 my noble beast. You would have perished 
 at the sight ! The most disreputable, bony, 
 thin, sad-visaged animals, tottering on their 
 poor little legs, caparisoned with ropes, rags, 
 and old straps, and we sitting upon the high 
 native saddles in lordly fashion. Miss Pentup 
 is nearly six feet tall, her feet dragged, though 
 she kept herself doubled up as much as 
 possible and I was riding behind her, weak 
 and faint with the violence of my emotions. 
 
 It was glorious going, through lovely 
 green places and by rollicking streams, among 
 the near and distant mountains. At break 
 fast-time desertions reduced our number to 
 four. At night we laid our rugs at the foot 
 of a spreading walnut-tree, our slumbers dis 
 turbed only by the occasional flash of a pil 
 grim s torch as he wended his way to an old 
 Buddhist monastery which crowned a neigh 
 bouring height. At dawn we resumed our 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 153 
 
 jaunt with fresh horses mine kicked at 
 everything* and everybody in sight, and tried 
 to rub me off at every passing tree and 
 boulder. 
 
 As the day grew we overtook a pair of 
 pedestrians whom I had met in South India, 
 taking their honeymoon in this fairy-land. 
 They joined us, procured horses at the next 
 village, and gave us a sense of security and 
 dignity by their presence and tenting outfit. 
 
 As the day waned our path became a mere 
 thread along the mountain slope ; we had 
 frequently to dismount and walk ; we forded 
 streams, struggled up perpendicular walls 
 and cantered over green maidans. Once the 
 path ended at a huge boulder which jutted 
 out into the river, and we had to ride through 
 foaming water a part of the way, and then 
 crawl over the rocks while the ponies swam 
 the remainder. Danger lurked in crevices 
 and snow masses, and once, as we were 
 crossing a torrent on a snow bridge, Miss 
 Pentup s horse fell through, and she barely 
 escaped with her life. 
 
 Just as the sun was hiding his face behind 
 the frowning peaks, we found ourselves upon 
 a bare, bleak hillside, where some magic 
 seemed to be in the air, for there sprang out 
 of the ground a fairy, posing for a " gentle- 
 
154 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 man of the old school," who waved a wand, 
 and forthwith rushed turbaned servants bear 
 ing biscuits, cakes, tea, and Turkish Delight. 
 Warm rugs were spread upon the ground, 
 and shawls protected us from the chilling 
 winds. Later the wand brought us a huge 
 camp-fire, a smoking dinner and a second 
 tent to shelter us from a pouring rain. 
 
 He was a strange individual for fairy-land, 
 for he wore a much patched Norfolk and 
 knickerbockers, with a dirk at his side and a 
 revolver in his belt. A troop of fine dogs 
 responded to his call and fawned upon him, 
 caressing his wrinkled face. He proved to 
 be a military veteran out shooting bears. 
 
 The following day we crossed the Liddar 
 River upon a frail bridge consisting of two 
 logs with crosspieces tied on with ropes. It 
 was too insecure for the ponies, so we left 
 them behind, cautiously picking our way 
 over the teetering structure, the waters toss 
 ing and foaming beneath. 
 
 The scenery grew ever more magnificent. 
 It was a joy to pluck the rare edelweis, the 
 violets and anemones ; to walk beneath the 
 ancient trees, to tread the ground familiar to 
 the bear and leopard, across slippery snows, 
 over boulders and turbulent streams. 
 
 But we could not reach the glacier. As 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 155 
 
 the sun rose high and bright, the melting 
 snows swelled the streams to great rivers, 
 which could not be forded, and we had to 
 abandon our project when within a mile of 
 our goal. 
 
 The next feat Miss Pentup and I had to 
 attempt alone, as the English ladies were 
 leaving, and the honeymooners preferred 
 love in a house-boat. Silently we drifted 
 down the Jhelum in the light of the quarter 
 moon, the broad, still waters reflecting faintly 
 the trees and banks of passing islands. We 
 punted up the Sind to Ganderbal, where we 
 moored our boat in the shadow of an old 
 bridge. 
 
 The following morning our caravan, con 
 sisting of two riding ponies, three syces, two 
 pack ponies, a coolie, Caesar the cook, and a 
 "boy," started in a pouring rain up Sind 
 Valley. Thirty miles of lovely trees and 
 fields, and then the mountains closed in, the 
 path became steep and rocky, the song of 
 the river deepened into a tremendous roar. 
 We travelled anywhere from ten to fifteen 
 miles a day, running races with thunder 
 storms or lingering by the banks of creeks 
 which raged in white fury on their way to 
 the valley. In the mornings we always left 
 the horses with the men, to walk in the 
 
156 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 ruddy glow of the dawn and drink in the 
 power and mystery of these lovely solitudes. 
 
 At fifty miles we came to a sudden expan 
 sion in the valley, all emerald meadows and 
 gentle slopes, having for a background 
 frowning, snow-clad Sonamarg. 
 
 The path which led to Ladakh allured us, 
 for we thought it would be interesting to see 
 how the women of that polyandrous land 
 kept their husbands in subjection, crushed- 
 looking as they are, with their surprised, ob 
 lique eyes, perpetual smile and scanty beards 
 and hair. But the temptation was resisted, 
 and we pitched our tent by the river, as it 
 rushed along in its greenish-blue haste, leav 
 ing flecks of white foam in its wake. Under 
 a full moon we shivered beside a crackling 
 bonfire, and contemplated the majestic, yet 
 illusive works of Nature around. 
 
 We were very keen on the next expedition, 
 which was to the Gangabal Lakes. Horses 
 were practicable the first day, during which 
 we forded rivers which swept us away down 
 stream, so swift were they, and crawled along 
 the edges of precipices, over slippery, rocky 
 paths which threatened at any moment a 
 headlong plunge into the crazy torrent hun 
 dreds of feet below. Horses discarded and 
 seven difficult coolies hired, we began the as- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 157 
 
 cent of Haramouk. The men were afraid, but 
 we were determined. They looked for signs 
 of relenting in our faces, and, finding none, 
 proceeded to mutiny on the spot. The tiffin 
 basket wallah deposited his burden in the 
 shadow of an ancient temple, advising us to 
 have our lunch at nine o clock in the morn 
 ing. I told him to move on, but he would 
 not. Finally, having exhausted my store of 
 eloquence, argument and command, I seized 
 a small twig and started for him. He fled 
 like a gazelle into the forest, I in full pursuit, 
 but he disappeared and we never saw him 
 again. The lesson was efficacious, however, 
 and the rest meekly fell into line. 
 
 It was a terrible climb ! Four thousand 
 feet almost straight up, over slippery pine- 
 needles which begrudged us a foothold, and 
 then over bleak stretches where shepherds 
 guarded their flocks and herds, and refreshed 
 us with foaming goat s milk. The pictur 
 esque shepherdesses, in their Turkish trou 
 sers and red blankets, regarded us with curi 
 ous but friendly eyes. 
 
 Wearily we turned in at nightfall. The 
 next day we clambered over a rocky ridge 
 which brought us to the snows, where we 
 risked our lives on slippery frozen tracts 
 sloping steeply to the turbulent river. Once 
 
158 A BLUESTOCKING IK INDIA 
 
 a coolie slipped and fell as he shot down 
 the declivity I thought he was lost, but he 
 dug in his heels and saved himself, to carry 
 us later across a furious stream which poured 
 out of the snout of a not distant glacier. 
 The icy boulders gave him but an insecure 
 foothold, and he dipped a half of me into the 
 frigid waters, but a winter s wind and a sum 
 mer s sun soon froze and dried me off as I 
 went on my way rejoicing. 
 
 That night we pitched our tent upon a 
 tiny square of bare ground in the midst of a 
 wilderness of snow, with the ice-bound Gan- 
 gagal in front, the glaciers and snows of 
 Haramouk descending steeply to its opposite 
 shore. Scores of peaks in white desolation 
 beetled against a lowering sky. On every 
 side stretched great expanses of snow, re 
 lieved only by gray rocks and black caverns 
 exposed on the wind-swept heights. We 
 were silent, crushed with the vastness of it 
 all, overcome with its terrifying grandeur. 
 
 It was the tenth of June, and a fierce snow 
 storm began to rage. No wood was obtain 
 able, so our dinner was cooked over a few 
 sticks brought from the lower regions on the 
 coolies backs, and chota hazri made over 
 the charred remnants of the same. Cold and 
 wet we crept into bed, while the storm raged 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 159 
 
 without our canvas house and thunder hur 
 tled among the crags and peaks above and 
 around. 
 
 But the morning ! The glory of it ! With 
 the high lights, the deep shadows, the ser 
 rated peaks, the distant mists, the clear green 
 of the glaciers, the cold blue of the sky it 
 was unspeakably, magnificently lovely ! As 
 the day grew the sunlight created mists to 
 hang rainbows upon, while we trudged over 
 disaster-filled, trackless wastes, scarcely aware 
 of our bodies, so stimulating were the air and 
 elevation. 
 
 By noon the sun had veiled his face, and 
 we ate our lunch with a gray mist settling 
 upon us, the coolies crouching about with 
 faces grim set for the worst. The sound of a 
 snowball rolling, bounding, to unseen depths, 
 made us dizzy and faint. Once I fell, and 
 slid several yards down a slope as steep as a 
 roof, but saved myself by my finger nails. 
 
 Finally we tacked and zigzagged up the 
 last ascent, which brought us to the head of 
 a pass. But it was only to find ourselves face 
 to face with an overhanging snow-drift twenty 
 feet high. However, our brave men dug a 
 tunnel for us, and with ropes and tent poles 
 managed to land us on the other side out 
 of a warmish snow-storm into a freezing, 
 
160 A BLUESTOCKING IN ItfDIA 
 
 piercing blizzard, which penetrated to our 
 very marrow. The descent was over un- 
 tracked snow. The fellows crawled and 
 stopped, considered and crawled, zigzag. 
 One fell ; he could not rise, so cut his pack 
 loose and let it go. It bounded two- thirds of 
 the way to the river and stopped. Then he 
 let himself go and slid safely to a place where 
 walking was possible. All followed. I sat 
 on a blanket behind a coolie and off we flew. 
 A glorious toboggan slide, and no one hurt, 
 besides saving hours of laborious and dan 
 gerous walking ! Arrived at the bottom we 
 looked up at our perpendicular track from the 
 clouds fifteen thousand feet above the sea. 
 It looked like the path of a narrow avalanche. 
 
 By nightfall we found bare ground and 
 wood, and had our breakfast at 7 P. M. 
 A generous bakshish rendered the coolies 
 happy ; we dried our clothes by a roaring 
 camp-fire, and slept the sleep of the just and 
 the weary. 
 
 Eighteen miles the following day in a pour 
 ing rain brought us to our doonga, sent 
 around to meet us in Wular Lake. A hot 
 bath and massage, and we had not even a 
 stiff muscle to remind us of our jaunt. 
 
 Leisurely we punted back to Siranagar, 
 going aside into the beautiful Manasbal Lake, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 161 
 
 lying like a turquoise in its setting of hills. 
 We sat in the long twilight watching the re 
 flections in its crystal depths, and in the 
 morning lay flat on our doonga deck trailing 
 our hands in the warm waters, gathering 
 bunches of the lovely lotus, and pulling up 
 lily-pads by their long rubber stems. 
 
 En route to Shahapur, June 29 y ip . 
 
 The dream of Paradise is ended, and work 
 and worry loom ahead, but the prospect 
 troubles me not at all, for I am feeling well 
 and looking fat and rosy. 
 
 We left Siranagar a week ago with many 
 groanings within and without. We had pro 
 cured a comfortable landau for the two hun 
 dred mile drive, and planned to enjoy our 
 selves in spite of the heat, which was excess 
 ive. As we approached the foot of the val 
 ley we gave ourselves up to reminiscences of 
 our climbs, and to taking farewell views of 
 the peaks which had become dear to us, 
 though not familiar. Haramouk, 16,900 feet 
 high, dominated the scene, and though stand 
 ing twenty miles back from the valley, was 
 reflected in the still waters by which we were 
 driving. Behind us, towards Siranagar, was 
 the ridge which bounds the Sind Valley, and 
 beyond that the top of Mha Dev. More dis- 
 
162 A BLUESTOCKING IN IKDIA 
 
 tant was seen Mount Kolohoi, 17,800 feet, its 
 twin sugar-loaf peaks enbosoming vast snow- 
 fields and glaciers, while on our left the val 
 ley was closed in by a profusion of precip 
 itous crags and snow-caps whence flow peren 
 nial streams to feed the great Jhelum. 
 
 A wonderful country, with its unrivalled 
 combination of rich plain and lofty crags; 
 clear streams, torrents and broad lakes ; shady 
 chenar groves and tangled pine forests. The 
 sky-line is broken on all sides by the serrated 
 edges, lofty cones and rounded domes of the 
 various snow peaks. It looks like the silvered 
 outline of some fairy city. 
 
 We strained our eyes for a last glimpse of 
 this most beautiful spot in all the world, as 
 our horses turned into the narrow gorge where 
 the Jhelum begins her mad revellings, and 
 the road crawls tortuously along the sides of 
 precipices. 
 
 By judiciously tipping the driver we per 
 suaded him into a fairly good speed, and 
 hoped to overlap one traveller s bungalow 
 each day, thus reducing the trip to three days, 
 or four at the most, though we had been as 
 sured that the journey to Rawalpindi would 
 require fully five. In the middle of the first 
 afternoon we espied another landau ahead as 
 it rounded a jutting hill, and came up with it 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 163 
 
 at a place where there had been a land slip 
 and a company of Kashmiris were working 
 in the road. Our first introduction to its oc 
 cupants was amusing if not edifying, for as I 
 leaned far out of the carriage to see the cause 
 of our delay, it was just in time to behold 
 a tall, slender Englishman soundly boxing 
 the ears of a stout, squat native for having 
 his cart across the road. His companion was 
 lounging upon the seat indolently smoking, 
 taking things in general in a most philo 
 sophical spirit. It was easy to diagnose the 
 case of number one tropical sun on the 
 nerves without a doubt, and I thought sym 
 pathetically how greatly I should have en 
 joyed a similar demonstration on my own part 
 during the strenuous times at hot, hot Karad. 
 
 We all sat at the same dinner- table that 
 night, and we learned that our fellow-travel 
 lers were officers from Rawalpindi, who dis 
 couraged our plan of exploring Khyber Pass 
 at this season of the year when it is gray 
 and dusty and hot beyond conception. 
 
 Number one, whom number two called 
 Captain Flanagin, seemed strangely familiar 
 to me, but English officers are all so much 
 alike that I concluded it was but a passing 
 resemblance, when he mentioned Mhable- 
 shwar in a comparison of mountain scenery. 
 
164 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 That brought it all back my wandering", 
 lost, in the jungle, and my rescue by a tall, 
 slender, military-appearing Englishman. I 
 now saw very plainly that this was the same 
 one of whom I had caught a passing glimpse 
 under the flickering light of the veranda 
 lamp nearly two years before. But he did 
 not recognize me, and no wonder, consider 
 ing my dishevelled and scratched condition 
 on that luckless night. 
 
 As we were doomed to have an occasional 
 meal together in the course of three days 
 testing of travellers bungalows, we concluded 
 to make the best of it, and found the cap 
 tain most agreeable and witty company. 
 Number two essayed to converse with Miss 
 Pentup, but it was as if the English and 
 American languages had never enjoyed even 
 a bowing acquaintance, and they could not 
 understand a word of each other excepting 
 "yes" and "no," and one of these they 
 always used in reply to a question which 
 expected the other. 
 
 We arrived at Rawalpindi in the midst of 
 the fiercest dust storm I ever experienced, 
 only to gasp under a punkah for three hours 
 as we waited for the day to wane, the mer 
 cury standing at one hundred and eighteen de 
 grees in the shade. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 165 
 
 As our train did not leave for some time, 
 we took a carriage at sunset for a drive 
 through the city. The political atmosphere 
 at Pindi was tense with excitement, and if 
 we had been better informed as to the day s 
 doings we should scarcely have ventured to 
 show our white faces to the public, for that 
 very morning an anti-government mob had 
 made a decided demonstration in which 
 American missionaries were the chief suffer 
 ers. Smashed dishes and furniture, smoking 
 and charred remains of household effects, 
 and broken windows told but too vividly of 
 the visit of the mob, who stoned and severely 
 injured the inmates of one bungalow as 
 they fled to a neighbouring one. At the latter 
 place they were confronted by brave Mr. 
 Simpkins, who, alone upon his veranda, gave 
 back bricks for stones, which he hurled so 
 effectively as finally to disperse the rioters. 
 
 Entirely ignorant of what had occurred, 
 we ordered our coachman to drive by a 
 devious, roundabout way to the mission 
 headquarters. He began to remonstrate, 
 but we silenced him with a glance, and with 
 a " don t care " expression he climbed upon the 
 box. Ere long we came up with a howling 
 mob, upon whose outskirts the driver stopped, 
 and we stood up to see if we could discern 
 
166 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 the cause of it. Horrors ! there behind the 
 hedge was a weeping, pleading ayah, and a 
 round-eyed, plump little white child, with his 
 fists doubled up even while his lips were 
 quivering, as he faced his dusky tormentors, 
 who, with menace in their attitudes and un 
 reasoning rage in their faces, were closing 
 in upon their helpless victims. My heart in 
 my throat, I ordered the coachman to drive 
 upon the crowd and through it to the place 
 where the child was, but he sat like a stone. 
 I repeated the order and he said, " Mem 
 Sahib, it is madness, they will kill you." 
 But I clinked some rupees in my bag, giving 
 him a significant glance, and he lashed the 
 horses. We swept through the cursing mob, 
 caught up the babe and his ayah and then 
 thought to escape. But it was not to be so 
 easy. The fanatics were infuriated ; we were 
 surrounded ; the driver could do nothing, 
 and really, Eleanor, I scarcely think I would be 
 alive to tell the tale if succour had not been 
 at hand For the Irish Rifles had heard 
 that a white child had been slain, and were 
 coming down the city in a body. The 
 wildest imagination could not conceive what 
 the awful results would have been, had the 
 report proved true. 
 
 All the rest is like a dream. But the mob 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 167 
 
 was scattered, and our carriage was es 
 corted to the station after we had surren 
 dered our charges to the officer who proved 
 to be no other than Captain Flanagin. And, 
 do you know, it was a little American child 
 whom his ayah had hidden in her own house 
 during the disturbances of the morning. In 
 the afternoon she had been seen trying to 
 make her way back to the mission compound. 
 
 We had to hurry to catch our train, which 
 we boarded with relief and gratitude. After 
 investing in a few newspapers we became 
 better informed as to political conditions. 
 The whole Punjab is seething. The villagers 
 in the Tindi district are persuaded that 
 government has poisoned the wells and 
 streams in order to dispose of the land 
 owners, so that it may claim the land. Not 
 long since a native government clerk was 
 seen drinking at a well, whereupon the cry 
 went up, " Government poisoner, govern 
 ment poisoner," and the whole village turned 
 out and gave the hapless fellow a severe 
 beating. They also insist that plague comes 
 from poisoned drinking water by the same 
 agency. 
 
 Conditions are equally bad, if not worse, in 
 Lahore, where nothing seems to allay the ex 
 citement incident to the deportation, without 
 
168 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 trial, of Lajput Rai, who was accused of stir 
 ring up sedition, and was swiftly, silently 
 transported to Rangoon, where he is de 
 tained in the fort under police surveillance, 
 and is not permitted to carry on any corre 
 spondence with the outside world. 
 
 The news was received with the wildest 
 indignation, and protests from countless In 
 dian organizations have been sent in to the 
 Viceroy, demanding that the charges on 
 which the Punjab government based its ac 
 tion be published forthwith, and an oppor 
 tunity be given Lajput Rai to meet them. 
 
 ShahapuTy July, 
 After a week of pouring rain the country is 
 flooded. You have no idea how pretty it is 
 the great stretches of yellow waters with 
 temples and green trees rising out of them, 
 bamboos nodding over the ripples, and the 
 low, misty mountains in the distance. 
 
 I am very happy in my new surroundings ; 
 a change of base has ministered to my no 
 madic instincts, though it has deprived me of 
 many professional opportunities. The native 
 capital is interesting in the extreme, and the 
 occasions for studying picturesque oriental 
 ism are numerous. The bazaar is a fasci 
 nating place in which to linger, where auto- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 169 
 
 mobiles, bicyles, and rubber-tired carriages 
 jostle bullock-carts, camels and elephants on 
 the road, while distant chimes from the Ma 
 harajah s new palace strike upon the ear. 
 The brilliantly turbaned throngs endlessly 
 mingle, separate and move on in ever-chang 
 ing masses, dogs bark, children crawl under 
 your horses heels, venders vociferate, and 
 you shake your occidental self together and 
 ask yourself where you are, anyway. 
 
 In the suburbs are the English and Amer 
 ican bungalows not very many of them, but 
 enough to convince you that you are not 
 utterly alone in a strange land. This is the 
 social season, and if our work were not so 
 all absorbing, we might lead quite a gay life 
 with the "At Homes," dinners, gymkhana 
 sports, and so forth. Last evening an Anglo- 
 native function took place at the Residency, 
 which was rather devoid of meaning to me, 
 the title of Rao Sahib being conferred upon 
 a native gentleman who had been faithful to 
 his trust. Colonel and Mrs. Randal, repre 
 senting the Viceroy and the Vicereine, occu 
 pied a gold, satin-covered seat upon a raised 
 dais carpeted with cloth of gold, the native civil 
 officers and guests were ranged at one side, 
 the native military and ourselves at the other, 
 while the English officers stood near the dais. 
 
170 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 It has been my fate at all the recent func 
 tions to find myself tete-a-tete with an officer 
 who has recently been transferred from Aden, 
 and is nearly demented from sojourning in 
 that terrible, God-forsaken spot. Periodic 
 ally he rages of the equator, the sun, the 
 sand-storms, the prickly heat, and all the 
 woes to which flesh is heir, to all of which, 
 on every occasion, I present a most horrified 
 and sympathetic front. I should have gone 
 mad there myself, and am truly sorry for 
 him, with his handsome, sad face and melan 
 choly eyes. 
 
 The officers wives are always elegantly 
 gowned, and a pretty Parsi, wife of a college 
 professor, wears the most exquisite silken 
 saris I have ever seen, and in the most 
 charming and graceful manner. 
 
 My work demands all my time and thought. 
 I am beginning it by opening a dispensary 
 in the heart of the high caste district, with 
 the intent of drawing in Brahmin women 
 who are very difficult to reach. Aside from 
 dispensary I attend cases in the town and 
 among our Christian community. 
 
 Shahapur, Aug., 19 . 
 A pomegranate tree in front of my window 
 is laden with fruit and flowers, suggesting 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 171 
 
 coming days of feasting. The Aden-frenzied 
 officer is still a pervasive presence. The 
 monsoon weather has practically restored him 
 to a normal state of mind, in spite of which 
 fact he continues to hover in my vicinity. 
 We get on famously together and have no 
 difficulty in understanding each other s lan 
 guage or jokes. 
 
 The country is still restless from the Swade 
 shi movement, and the government seems to 
 consider its position serious, if not menacing. 
 The attempt to locate the cause of the trouble 
 has only brought to light grievances which 
 certainly demand a remedy. Theories of 
 growing poverty, excessive taxation, quarrels 
 between Mussulmans and Hindus, the aloof 
 ness of the British, and the natural animosity 
 felt by the Indians towards their conquerors, 
 have all been deduced. 
 
 Of course deportations without trial have 
 added fuel to the flame, while prosecutions 
 against a seditious press continue, with the 
 idea, I suppose, of curing the disease by sup 
 pressing the symptoms. 
 
 The latest sensation in the native press 
 advocates the performance of peculiar cere 
 monies at regular intervals, with the intention 
 of stimulating the lukewarm to action. This 
 consists of midnight meetings of great crowds 
 
172 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 upon forty successive nights, at which times 
 they are to sacrifice one hundred and one 
 white goats without blemish, amid appropriate 
 demonstrations of music, drums, and fire 
 works. " Then," says the writer, " we will be 
 ready to sacrifice not white goats, but white 
 folks." 
 
 The boycotters are aided and abetted by 
 the native government clerks on the railroads 
 and steamers, and are thus empowered to do 
 a great deal of damage to foreign goods even 
 before they have reached their destination. 
 
 One of the particular grievances set forth 
 at the last meeting of the Indian National 
 Congress is the impoverishment of the people 
 of India through the salaries and pensions 
 paid to the English administrators of the 
 government, amounting, it seems, to about 
 sixty-seven million dollars annually. They 
 think the government positions should be 
 filled by Indians, who can live on one-third 
 or less the salary of an Englishman. 
 
 Shahapur, Sept,, 19 . 
 The latter rains are on, and the weather is 
 simply unendurable. We swelter in a terrible 
 heat, which puts Tophet in the shade until 
 three o clock, when a tremendous storm 
 comes up which threatens to unroof all the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 173 
 
 houses, the water comes down in floods, and 
 we keep ourselves busy placing buckets 
 around under the leakages. 
 
 The past few days have been reeking with 
 native religious festivals, but to-day all is 
 quiet, so I judge the poor gods have been 
 feted to death. What with their baths, 
 feasts, and processions, you would think the 
 people might at last be able to elicit some 
 manifestation of favour, but plague and allied 
 ills proceed as usual. 
 
 My work has grown until it has assumed 
 tremendous proportions, and my compulsory 
 " year of rest " in Shahapur has become as 
 strenuous as any I have ever experienced. 
 
 Plague is terrible. Eleven thousand deaths 
 per day from that alone throughout India ! 
 Every morning on my way to the town I 
 meet men bearing corpses upon biers, or see 
 families preparing their dead for the last 
 rites, upon their front door-steps, bathing and 
 wrapping them in winding sheets, while the 
 women wail and beat their breasts, and strike 
 their foreheads against the rough stones of 
 the road. And every evening at twilight I 
 can count fifteen or more places upon the 
 river bank where the smoke is curling sky 
 ward, indicating that many deaths in our one 
 little town. It is like a doomed city, and the 
 
174 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 people apathetically receive their fate from 
 the hands of the unpropitiated gods. 
 
 Day after day they bring their sick ones 
 bodily and lay them at my feet upon the dis 
 pensary floor, and day after day I invade 
 their dirty huts and haul over the cases that 
 are lying there burning up with fever, wild 
 with delirium, or torpid with the overwhelm 
 ing poison which their systems have at last 
 ceased to fight. 
 
 Sometimes they recover and sometimes 
 they do not. None of the conditions are 
 favourable, for, to a man, they refuse to go to 
 the state segregation hospital, where they 
 would at least have light and air. Poor, 
 ignorant souls, so helpless in their ignorance, 
 they are deathly afraid of inoculation, which 
 is their only hope, victims of a cruel fate 1 
 Or is it the just workings of the law of cause 
 and effect? 
 
 In spite of the awful sadness and gloom, 
 however, the stream of life hurries on ; those 
 upon whom the heavy hand of grief has not 
 yet fallen follow in the usual routine, and 
 death is mocked by births and the festive 
 marriage ceremonies of the higher castes. 
 
 A day or two ago we were bidden to such 
 a feast, and it was scarcely thinkable that 
 sorrow and death were lurking in the dark 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 175 
 
 doorways hidden by the brilliant throng" 
 among which we drove. Through the nar 
 row, winding streets of the native bazaar, 
 amid a confusion of shouts, camel-carts, scar 
 let-coated suwars mounted on prancing 
 horses, to the Old Palace enclosure, where 
 elephants caparisoned in cloth of gold, and 
 sombre khaki-clad sepoys guarded the main 
 entrance, we hastened, in our rattle-trap ton 
 gas, barouches and open landaus. At the 
 great door we were set down, and salaam- 
 proficient guides received and led us to the 
 precincts beyond. Within were soft lights 
 flickering behind tinted glass, graceful palms 
 and trailing vines, and seated on the floor 
 was a double row of priests waiting to per 
 form their important function. The nobility 
 and officers of state were there, besides the 
 English and Americans of the place. 
 
 The Maharajah s arrival was announced 
 by loyal shouts and " God save the King " 
 from the brass band. He entered with 
 stately tread, recognized the guests with 
 kingly dignity, and set himself down beside 
 his handsome little sons gorgeous in coats 
 of brocaded silk, their voluminous turbans 
 threaded and wrought with gold, and ropes 
 of pearls about their youthful necks. 
 
 Then came the brides six of them, stretch- 
 
176 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 ing out dainty, bejewelled feet timidly, grop 
 ingly, for their heads were muffled, one end 
 of their long graceful garment being held 
 over the face by a gilded crown, whose span 
 gles drooped over the shoulders. Through 
 enveloping robes could be descried diminu 
 tive figures, none more than six years old, 
 while one a mere baby was carried in the 
 arms of her nurse. Each bride was placed 
 in a tiny alcove to await the coming of her 
 bridegroom, who in each case was tall, ma 
 tured, moustached, carrying on his arm a 
 rich garment for his bride. Then a curtain 
 was held between them, and while the bride 
 groom gazed over it at the shrinking child 
 he was taking for a wife, the priests chanted 
 the bans, coloured rice was thrown, the guests 
 were garlanded, perfumed, and anointed with 
 sandal-wood oil, and all was over. But it 
 was only the beginning for the brides. 
 
 From the galleries above peered down the 
 women dark-eyed, timid, smiling. I won 
 der if they were glad for the little veiled girls 
 sitting in their alcoves? I wonder if their 
 own experiences had taught them anything 
 of happiness for child wives, or did they look 
 back upon the burdens assumed at the ten 
 der age of twelve the burdens of wifehood 
 with a shudder ? 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 177 
 
 I wonder if these little girls will grow up 
 to love they will certainly fear these hus- 
 hands not of their own choosing? Behind 
 the purdah what bitternesses, what heart 
 aches, what longings ! What sufferings 
 screened from the world, how seldom happi 
 ness or contentment ! 
 
 Shahapur, Oct., 19 . 
 Dear Eleanor : 
 
 This is the month in which you are 
 revelling in glorious autumn weather the 
 trees are all golden and brown, the leaves 
 rustling beneath your feet as you stroll un 
 der a sky which is not brassy, and breezes 
 which do not burn play with the tendrils of 
 your hair. Winter will soon be upon you, 
 and how jolly cool you will be. 
 
 We are simply baking alive ! Even at 
 eight o clock in the morning, when I 
 walk into the town, the heat is simply 
 terrible. 
 
 I cannot imagine what is wrong with me. 
 The sun and glare and temperature do not 
 seem to affect the other missionaries, and 
 their endurance is something marvellous. It 
 must be that I have not really recuperated 
 from that illness, though the cold and snows 
 of the mountains and the delightful monsoon 
 
178 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 weather here, persuaded me that my consti 
 tution was of cast-iron as before. 
 
 Every day I work against time at the dis 
 pensary, and without my breakfast, for it is 
 impossible to close the doors before one 
 o clock, and then there is the mile of burning 
 sun to the bungalow, and the rest of the day 
 filled with sick Christians and private cases 
 in town. 
 
 At present our native pastor, one of the 
 sweetest-natured men I ever knew, is very 
 ill. I call in to see him twice a day, and he 
 turns his face gratefully up to me and whis 
 pers that my visits are like the visits of an 
 angel. I can scarcely restrain my tears, for 
 I am so weak myself that any little sign of 
 appreciation like that breaks me all up. 
 
 In the afternoons the daughter of one of 
 the King s chief councilmen comes here for 
 private treatment. She is a sweet womanly 
 girl, but quite uneducated, though her father 
 is a brilliant Brahmin of great wealth and 
 distinction, who speaks English fluently and 
 is a most fascinating conversationalist. He 
 says that he has not educated his daughters 
 lest their husbands object, and as they be 
 come factors in the case during their wives 
 infancy, I suppose they are the ones to take 
 the initiative. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 179 
 
 But this country will never achieve free 
 dom or anything else desirable until she 
 emancipates her women. With little, imma 
 ture girls the mothers of the nation, wives un 
 educated and untrained, widows condemned 
 to a life of drudgery or shame and prohibited 
 from respectable remarriage, what can be 
 expected? The whole scheme of life is un 
 natural and base. The whole country is 
 physically, socially, morally, spiritually cor 
 rupt. And yet the men are straining after 
 liberty and presumably sacrificing property 
 and lives therefor, while the Social Congress 
 sits in Calcutta ostensibly to inspire social 
 reform and progress, but actually winking at 
 the abuses of women, and passing half-hearted 
 resolutions for the alleviation of their lot, 
 which could not warm up a fly to the subject. 
 
 I suppose, however, we ought to be thank 
 ful that there is even such a conference in 
 existence. 
 
 The Maharajah s mother is another case 
 in point. I go out to see her every day in 
 the royal automobile. Even now she is a 
 young woman, and might have been a power 
 for good had her proper training been insti 
 tuted instead of, and at the time, that matri 
 mony was thrust upon her. She is very 
 quick to learn and possesses a progressive 
 
180 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 mind, yet custom compels her to while away 
 her days secluded in her huge apartments, 
 gossiping and intriguing for want of a better 
 pastime. At the time of my first visit she 
 surprised me by producing her own clinical 
 thermometer, by displaying an English watch, 
 and by occupying an elaborate brass bed 
 with mosquito-net curtains, such as we occi 
 dentals use. 
 
 Her Highness assumes to be very relig 
 ious, and though her many fast days inter 
 fere seriously with the intake of medicines, I 
 continue my visits with the expectation of 
 securing psychological, and I hope and 
 pray moral and spiritual effects. 
 
 Before each call I have to tone myself up 
 with a stiff dose of strychnia, for what can a 
 fagged and spiritless practitioner expect to 
 accomplish with hysterical women if she her 
 self be on the verge of fainting and tears ? 
 
 Shahapur, Nov., fp . 
 This morning as I turned into the lane 
 upon which the dispensary faces, I was 
 greeted with something new to me in the 
 line of worship. It was a narrow street at 
 best, with scarcely room enough between the 
 rows of blue and yellow houses for a two- 
 wheeled cart to pass. This morning it was 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 181 
 
 filled with crowds of men assembled for a 
 religious celebration. At each doorway were 
 planted flags whose staffs were festooned 
 with branches of green, while the house of 
 the festival was gay with coloured banners 
 and paper ornaments. Weird music came 
 from within, and gorgeously beturbaned 
 youths lounged upon the hanging balcony. 
 
 The affair began with the lining up in 
 pairs of a double row of one hundred men, 
 each provided with cymbals and bells. The 
 leader gave the signal, there was a clash of 
 instruments and the dance was started 
 partners salaaming to each other, striking 
 their instruments, springing forward, balan 
 cing back, bowing and clashing the cymbals 
 again, until the street was a very Bedlam for 
 noise. 
 
 Then came the triumphal march. In pairs, 
 clashing, surging, swaying, balancing they 
 went, followed by the palanquin borne of 
 four, within whose red and gold splendour 
 was not so base a thing as an idol but a 
 framed photograph of Tukaram, an ancient 
 Marathi poet, whose deification had been 
 accomplished some years after his demise. 
 Before the picture were votive offerings, and 
 following the palanquin a few soberly clad 
 women carried roses and a silver jar of spices. 
 
182 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 And so they passed out of the narrow street 
 a spectacle of the religion of the high- 
 minded Brahmins into the open spaces be 
 yond, while I turned in at my Own door to 
 attend to the manifold wants of my medley 
 of patients. 
 
 I have been having a taste of cold weather 
 lately right here in the midst of this hades, 
 for Mr. G. P. (hero of the chase) was provi 
 dentially led to flee with his family into the 
 fastnesses of the mountains in order to escape 
 plague, and there, in cool solitude, he occu 
 pies one of the Maharajah s hunting lodges 
 in the midst of a vast forest and hunting 
 preserve. Well, he jumped out of the fry 
 ing-pan into the fire, for though he escaped 
 plague, he ran into other divers and interest 
 ing diseases, and his young flock is now in 
 the toils of typhoid, malaria, and pneumonia, 
 and I have to treat them from a distance of 
 forty miles. That is just where the provi 
 dence part comes in, however, and I am 
 thriving on it tremendously. His Highness 
 has a weakness for G. P., and has placed the 
 half of his kingdom at his disposal, and his 
 automobile at mine. I start at 4 P. M. to 
 slip up and into the golden west, which is a 
 hot and dry experience, but the return journey 
 is a perfect delight, when, under the twinkling 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 183 
 
 stars or the silvery moon, we glide down the 
 mountainside, skirting abrupt descents, or 
 turning quick curves, creating a cold breeze 
 by our speed through the chillsome night. 
 The chauffeur is a dear little fellow who un 
 derstands his business thoroughly, and prides 
 himself upon his English. Every day he 
 says, "Sir, will Your Honour drive?" and I 
 always reply that I dislike risking his life by 
 my lack of skill, but he invariably reassures me 
 to the effect that any pleasure to me would 
 be the acme of joy to him, so I drive and am 
 becoming quite an expert. 
 
 In spite of my work, I get a few minutes 
 now and then for social relaxation. Sporting 
 contests have been on this month, and the 
 water polo was particularly funny. One 
 evening an entertainment was held in a large 
 tent where the native infantry displayed some 
 of the most remarkable feats with fire and 
 scimiters and dirks, a perfect nightmare of 
 suggestion as to their possibilities if let loose 
 upon the community without English control. 
 
 My Aden friend has departed transferred 
 to another post. I cannot recount to you the 
 details of our last meeting " parting is such 
 sweet sorrow " ! He cannot bear the thought 
 of my terrible overwork, and curses missions 
 as a besotted or even devilish institution. 
 
184 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 But I insist that my life out here is no more 
 unnatural than his, and that his present atti 
 tude of mind in regard to me is merely a 
 symptom of the forced conditions under which 
 we live. You see I am the only woman in 
 the station who can lay even a remote claim 
 to youth. I am in manner altogether too friv 
 olous for my profession, and by nature very 
 sympathetic, so it is not difficult to arrive at 
 the etiology, diagnosis and prognosis in his 
 case I prognose a speedy healing of his 
 lacerated heart 
 
 I expect you are altogether weary of news 
 incident to plague, but I would not be a faith 
 ful chronicler if I neglected to tell you of our 
 latest tribulation along that line. 
 
 One of the native Christian women diso 
 beyed all orders by visiting a relative who 
 was down with the disease, contracted it her 
 self and developed all the symptoms right 
 here in our midst, without giving a sign un 
 til her suffering forced her to give up and 
 send for me. We were in a dilemma. I ad 
 vised taking her at once to the state segre 
 gation hospital, but the natives have a hor 
 ror of it, and the missionaries did not like to 
 insist, so we built a little hut for her in the 
 corner of the compound, with a prospect of 
 having to do all the nursing ourselves. 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 185 
 
 We had, of course, to smother the room 
 which she had occupied in fire and smoke to 
 kill off infected fleas, which, you know, are 
 the conveyers of the disease, and then unroof 
 it to the light and air. 
 
 When we were ready to carry the patient 
 to her new quarters, the whole place seemed 
 deserted, so fearful were the natives, and I 
 had to coerce my servant and another man 
 into carrying two corners, while dear, brave 
 Miss Porter and I took the others. She was 
 an awful weight, and it was a terrible strain 
 from which both Miss Porter and I suffered 
 acutely afterwards. 
 
 Adversities are not, however, without their 
 compensations, and this one served to dis 
 cover to us a real hero in the person of 
 Gopalrao, one of the teachers in the high 
 school. He is a man with a history, having 
 been a convert from the Brahmin caste, the 
 proudest of the proud, who esteemed himself 
 worthy to be worshipped, nor disdained to 
 sell for goodly sums the water in which his 
 feet had been laved that a low caste man 
 might drink it, and progress a step in the 
 path of salvation thereby. 
 
 His conversion to Christianity was attended 
 by great persecutions on the part of his rela 
 tives and friends, and he was finally cast out, 
 
186 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 penniless and homeless, to shift for himself. 
 He had a severe testing time with two years 
 in prison, but came out purified as by fire. 
 
 Now he comes forth like an angel of mercy 
 and offers to do all the night nursing for us. 
 His help has meant everything. The unsel 
 fishness of his devotion, the tenderness and 
 efficiency of his care, his scorn of danger, his 
 sacrifices, have shown us the quality of some 
 of our Indian Christians. 
 
 The political horizon has not cleared any 
 quite the contrary, in fact. The recent 
 passage of the Seditious Meeting s bill was 
 met with a storm of indignation. The gov 
 ernment is accused of imputing disloyalty to 
 the masses of the Indian people, who, never 
 theless, are watching for any sign of weak 
 ness or fear, ready to pounce upon it as their 
 opportunity. They ask if the vapourings of 
 a few agitators are taken as evidences of 
 dangerous sedition, seemingly expecting the 
 government to ignore the riots, gratuitous 
 insults to Europeans, the state of the Pun 
 jab, the daily story from Eastern Bengal of 
 assault, looting, boycotting and general law 
 lessness. 
 
 The worst passions of racial feeling have 
 been inflamed and the loyalty of the In 
 dian army has been tampered with, while 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 187 
 
 the seeds of sedition have been planted 
 even among the hill-tribes and those of the 
 most remote frontiers. 
 
 There is no doubt that all this trouble is 
 the beginning of a new order of things, and 
 the spread of a national feeling of a 
 revolt of the East against the West. We 
 see it everywhere in the changed attitude of 
 the natives towards us, in the new independ 
 ence of our servants. But there is one thing 
 which must never be forgotten for a single 
 moment, and that is that the only thing the 
 Oriental respects is power, and the govern 
 ment will fall when it is no longer strong. 
 At the same time it must be prepared to 
 meet and assist such new aspirations as are 
 just and right among the people, to recog 
 nize the change which is passing over the 
 land, and to understand the signs of the 
 times. 
 
 Shahapur, Christmas Day, 19 . 
 My Own : 
 
 Flat on my back again, but no amount 
 of illness shall prevent my celebrating Christ 
 mas by writing to the joy of my heart. I 
 have known that something must go to 
 smash for some time past, but was deter 
 mined it should not be my work, and so it 
 
188 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 had to be my poor foolish self, which imag 
 ined it could toil on and on in defiance of all 
 the laws of nature and of common sense, 
 and not pay the penalty. Why such penalty 
 was not plague or smallpox or cholera I do 
 not know, but in my ignorance I am pro 
 foundly thankful. Why it is grippe I do 
 not know, for though I have been treating 
 cases of it galore, they have not been any 
 more numerous than the first-mentioned. 
 The last few days I kept myself going by 
 sheer will power, and when at last I did keel 
 ever it was a complete collapse. It has 
 seemed to seize me in all its phases, but the 
 worst phase is the nervous, and never a wink 
 of sleep do I obtain without a soporific. 
 
 But enough of my aches and pains, for 
 my window frames a picture to stir the po 
 etic imagination. These cloudy days ren 
 der the landscape effects perfectly entrancing. 
 In the distance I can see the turrets of the 
 Maharajah s new palace against the purple 
 rim of the hills, whose changing lights and 
 shadows indicate the flight of fleecy clouds. 
 
 I am happy in a weak way, for my stock 
 ing hung in a convenient place for Santa 
 was full to bursting this morning, and the 
 day has been full of the evidences of thought- 
 fulness of these sweet and blessed comrades 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 189 
 
 of mine in exile, who, in the rush and over 
 work of their preternaturally busy lives, find 
 time to think of me, to stop with a word of 
 love, to turn back with a smile of encourage 
 ment. Greetings have also come from my 
 English friends, and mounted suwars have 
 brought the cards of the King and his 
 council. 
 
 All that is lacking is thee and a home 
 made mince pie. 
 
 But the pall which envelopes this land 
 cannot be shut out by the most cheerful res 
 olutions. The very day I keeled over, 
 Gopalrao s little daughter the sweetest, bon 
 niest small tot of four years, with the fattest 
 dimplingest face, and the biggest, blackest, 
 merriest eyes came down with plague in 
 its most violent form. I was not permitted 
 to know anything about it, for they all 
 thought that I was going to shuffle off this 
 mortal coil without further notice. Had I 
 known, I should certainly have risen up in 
 the strength of my will to go to poor Gopal 
 rao s succour. 
 
 He, poor man, without a murmur, lifted 
 his dear little Prita the name means love 
 in his arms, and carried her to the state 
 hospital, where he never left her day or 
 night, nor scarcely let her out of his arms 
 
190 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 until the end. Then, in the early gray of 
 one morning, he saw that she was going, 
 and pressed her shrunken little form to him 
 with a bitter cry. 
 
 Another little mound in the Christian cem 
 etery, in the midst of a heathen land, stands 
 as a mute witness to the heroism and sacri 
 fice of one of God s noblemen, who counted 
 not his own life dear, nor his love, if he 
 might but serve. And how he has served in 
 these awful plague-stricken times 1 
 
 After the funeral I sent for him, and oh, 
 Eleanor ! the drawn, haggard look of his face, 
 the strain of his tired eyes, the tenseness of 
 his set lips. I could not bear it, and just 
 turned over on my pillow and burst into tears. 
 I was dreadfully ashamed, for we never per 
 mit the natives to see us other than calm and 
 smiling, but perhaps not otherwise would he 
 have understood the depth of my sympathy, 
 for when I finally looked up, his face was 
 shining and his eyes dim. 
 
 Oh, I tell you it is love of God and nothing 
 else that is going to lift up this people and 
 make and save this nation. 
 
 As for the nation s political aspirations and 
 struggles, I am weary, weary, weary of them, 
 My first enthusiasm, a natural consequence 
 of my republican principles, and my inherent 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 191 
 
 tendency to champion the cause of the fellow 
 that is down, almost ran away with me. But 
 the methods employed, the lack of real 
 patriotism or anything but selfishness on the 
 part of so many of the leaders, fill one with 
 dismay and discouragement. Where any real 
 initiative is wanting, they are conspicuously 
 absent. They are slow to step in where capi 
 tal and cooperation, enterprise and specula 
 tion are needed. They commenced their 
 campaign at the wrong end. Without level 
 ling their own differences, or without even 
 constructing a common platform, and still 
 finding pleasure in lording it over tens of 
 millions of pariah slaves, still denying God s 
 light and air to their wives and daughters 
 you can see how absurd it is for them to 
 seek the reins of self-government. 
 
 Even in municipal affairs they are swayed 
 by caste prejudice and private matters more 
 often than by a sense of public duty. If the 
 administration were transferred to natives as 
 demanded by the National Congress, there 
 is little doubt that they would soon be tear 
 ing at each other s throats to gain predomi 
 nance for their respective castes. As for the 
 peasants, they do not even know the word 
 patriotism ; they exhibit a dull indifference 
 as to who rules them, only so they be suffered 
 
192 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 to plough their fields in peace. But whether 
 they know it or not, they never before pos 
 sessed any legal status, for they were despised 
 and ravaged without mercy until the advent 
 of the British. 
 
 To govern men it is necessary to get into 
 their skins, as it has been aptly said, and to 
 try to realize their feelings. 
 
 Some say the English ought to walk out of 
 India and leave it, and that the Indians could 
 manage their own affairs, but I shudder to 
 think of the chaos which would follow such 
 an act. 
 
 The government has seemed to shut its 
 eyes to the awakening of the East, but it 
 may be that the changes which it plans will 
 be the beginning of a gradual reform that 
 will bring India autonomy as rapidly as she 
 is able to bear it. These are the institutions 
 of an advisory council of notable Indians ; 
 the enlargement of the legislative councils ; 
 the appointment of one or two Indians to 
 the council of the Secretary of State for 
 India, and the appointment of a commission 
 to devise a scheme of decentralization in the 
 administration. 
 
 These proposals are naturally received 
 with scorn by the extremists, who declare 
 them to be but fresh fetters to bind the Indian 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 193 
 
 people to the chariot of England s imperial 
 ambition. 
 
 Pishvi, Jan., 19 . 
 
 All my nomadic instincts are revelling 
 in the blue canopy of the sky, the hills and 
 vales, and our little tent, nestling in the shade 
 of a huge banyan tree which is like a dimin 
 utive forest with its multitudinous trunks 
 and hanging roots. 
 
 I am out for my health. Rest is an im 
 possibility in Shahapur, where insistent pa 
 tients called me out of bed when my fever 
 was one hundred and two degrees, and I had 
 no opportunity to crawl in again except at 
 night, though I was as weak as a baby. The 
 fever still persists, likewise the weakness, 
 hence the out-of-door life among these 
 picturesque foot-hills. 
 
 As for rest, my flesh is willing, but the 
 spirit is weak, and with my old ambition 
 stimulated by the occasion and a strange 
 zeal to preach, I start out early in the morn 
 ing with the others for a village three, four, 
 or five miles away, where we give our mes 
 sage. In the afternoon I hold dispensary at 
 the tent. One of the first villages we visited 
 gave us a rather inhospitable reception, for 
 we permitted one of the Bible-women to talk 
 
194 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 first, and she very undiplomatically fell upon 
 their idols without ado. We were literally 
 chased out of the town, but learned wisdom 
 by the experience, and it has not been re 
 peated. 
 
 I must tell you about Soondri, the little 
 girl whom, you will remember, we rescued 
 from her brutal husband. She has developed 
 wonderfully in school, and I have her with 
 me now as my little assistant. She has en 
 joyed every moment from the time when she 
 " sat like a lady " in the two-horse tonga to 
 drive to our camping-place, up to the pres 
 ent. Yesterday morning, as we emerged 
 from our respective tents at dawn, she ap 
 proached, saying " Good-night " beamingly, 
 and then hung her head at my amused laugh 
 and murmured " Good-morning, Missie, I 
 shall never learn." I cheered her up, talk 
 ing about lessons and how much that day 
 would see us accomplish in English and 
 arithmetic. 
 
 I have been experimenting with the child, 
 having her sit beside me during dispensary 
 hours to tell a Bible story to the waiting 
 crowds, or to speak to the groups which 
 gather about us in the near-by towns. To 
 introduce a subject and my young compan 
 ion, and then to make the points and empha- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 195 
 
 size them at the close of her animated ad 
 dress, is all that is necessary, for the people, 
 watching her glowing face and shining eyes, 
 listen in perfect silence, and wonder at her 
 girlish treble voice, rising and rising in its 
 earnestness. 
 
 So this day was to be hers. As we began 
 our climb she said exultantly, " Abraham- 
 like, we the difficult hills choose, while the 
 lady of the tent and organ (Miss Porter) and 
 her girl, Lot-like, the fertile plains take." 
 When, breathless, we stopped to rest, the 
 sun had risen over the opposite range of 
 hills, touching with high lights the promi 
 nences of the landscape, showing the sleepy 
 valley terraced and brilliant with the waving 
 sugar-cane, and burnishing the silver line of 
 the winding river, but leaving our tent cool 
 and white under the shadow of the banyan 
 tree. 
 
 As the young day grew we skirted steep 
 precipices to the music of falling water, toil 
 ing ever upward towards the village on the 
 crown of the hill, which was our objective 
 point. As we approached it we sat down to 
 rest and pray that God would use us for His 
 honour that day, and let His Spirit work in 
 us and in the people to whom we were 
 going. 
 
196 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 And how they listened ! The whole vil 
 lage came out, and I had scarcely said my 
 say when they began to call for our Indian 
 girl. She it was who vividly told the old, 
 old story. Fearlessly she attacked their idol 
 worship and held it up to scorn, they re 
 sponding " Yes, yes ; true, true." We left 
 them there sitting upon their haunches, open- 
 mouthed. You could have heard a pin drop. 
 I wonder if the night found them a little less 
 sordid, with a little longing, a little hope ? 
 
 Not far beyond ten men stopped us in the 
 fields and we sat down under the golden sun 
 to repeat our message. 
 
 The next halt was at a little hamlet of shep 
 herds huts, where all the people ran in af 
 fright at sight of me, one stalwart man being 
 brave enough, however, to rush to the rescue 
 of his toddling two-year-old whom he con 
 veyed to a place of safety. I was surprised at 
 this, but my little helper said reminiscently that 
 she had been wildly terrified when she came 
 to my professional attention the first time. 
 " But you for me what have done ! " she 
 added gratefully. I, too, was grateful when 
 I compared her then miserable existence 
 with her present perfect health. As the sun 
 reached the zenith we passed a village on 
 the mountain slope embowered in palms and, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 197 
 
 hungry and footsore though we were, we 
 could not resist the appeal to stop and talk. 
 
 When we reached the tent we found a 
 crowd gathered there and a case demanding 
 immediate operation. I explained the neces 
 sity for this a signal for the mother to fall 
 upon the exhausted body of the patient with 
 shrieking and tearing of hair, crying that it 
 should never be. But the head man of the 
 town interposed, the mother was sent away, 
 and during her absence the operation was 
 compassed under a mango tree, my thirteen- 
 year-old companion giving the anesthetic, 
 while two unwashed men held the wounded 
 member for cutting, sewing, and splinting, 
 and my "lady of the tent and organ" gra 
 ciously provided cooking utensils for anti 
 septic solutions and instruments. 
 
 " No rest for the wicked/ I sighed, as the 
 patient disappeared over the hills on the 
 shoulders of his brother, and I turned to the 
 sixty others who were awaiting my services. 
 
 The day was waning when we finally sat 
 down to our lessons. We quickly spun them 
 off until we came to arithmetic, and with it 
 the daily struggle. For fifty minutes I illus 
 trated and proved and demonstrated one 
 simple principle, but in vain. Flesh and 
 blood could endure no more, and exclaim- 
 
198 A BLUESTOCKING IK INDIA 
 
 ing in despair, " Thy head is empty ; go to 
 thy tent, sit down and think, and think, and 
 think," I gave her the book and she went, a 
 thick cloud settling upon her classic brow. 
 At twilight I called her for our evening stroll 
 with water-pots upon our heads, than which 
 there is nothing better for correct poise and 
 for counteracting the stooping habits of a 
 sedentary life. Silently she came, gravely 
 she walked, just behind me. She spoke 
 monosyllables in response to my questions 
 and vouchsafed no remark of her own. We 
 sat down by the side of a darkly-flowing 
 river, turbulent as her inmost thoughts and 
 as secretive, as baffling. I studied the young 
 head, with its glossy black hair, the low, 
 wide brow, the straight nose, the full curv 
 ing lips, the gloomy eyes. Poor child ! No 
 father, no mother, a brutal husband, a child 
 hood of suffering, just blossoming into woman 
 hood and belated happiness, but none to love 
 or caress her. To overcome my aversion to 
 cocoanut oiled hair, to take her in my arms, 
 to pillow her head on my breast, was the 
 work of a moment ; and she melted into a 
 torrent of tears and cried out passionately, 
 " You me a blockhead called, and true it is ! 
 One I am so have all my teachers said ! " 
 There were laughter and talk as we re- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 199 
 
 turned to the tent in the gathering darkness, 
 for God had let His face shine upon us, and 
 peace reigned in our hearts. 
 
 Bhogav, Feb., 
 
 Every now and then we fold our tents and 
 steal away not very silently I can assure 
 you, with the servants and cart-wallahs split 
 ting the air with their excess of talk, which 
 with them stands in lieu of work, and for 
 which they demand equal pay. 
 
 Striking camp is always a tragedy, for we 
 have to turn out before dawn so the kit can 
 be loaded for an early start, and in nine cases 
 out of ten we have to ride some fifteen or 
 twenty-five miles in a jolting cart behind leis 
 urely bullocks who compass anything from 
 one to two miles an hour. 
 
 At the last camping-place we pitched our 
 tent just outside the courtyard of a heathen 
 temple, in the midst of an arid waste whose 
 desolation was relieved only by cactus hedges 
 and thorny trees. Miss Porter bearded the 
 pilgrims in a near-by holy town on the banks 
 of a sacred river, and was rewarded for her 
 pains and preaching by being pelted with 
 mud and unmercifully jeered at. 
 
 The meetings which we held daily in the 
 dispensary tent were rivalled by those of an 
 
200 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 
 
 old priest or yogi who held forth at the 
 temple gate, but his audience was to ours as 
 five to seventy. One day he invaded the 
 tent for the express purpose of a little dia 
 lectic fun, but I promptly removed the wind 
 from his sails by inviting him to withdraw, 
 as I had pitched my tent to facilitate the 
 propagation of my own religion, not his. 
 He was furious, and that night we were 
 alarmed by the noise and flare of a torch 
 light procession apparently marching right 
 upon our camp. With shouts and tom-toms 
 and waving of firebrands they came, while 
 we watched from within our hearts in our 
 mouths, mentally calculating our forces, which 
 consisted of ourselves, two native women, 
 four men-servants and my revolver. I knew 
 the last factor would be our efficient pro 
 tector, but disliked to use it, because of the 
 love and confidence vested in us by the 
 women and children of the villages, whom its 
 use would certainly frighten away. 
 
 But the mob turned in at the temple gate, 
 marching and stopping before the various 
 shrines, crying victory to their gods. The 
 full moon brought out in distinct relief their 
 fantastic movements, which we watched until 
 weary. When we retired, I sat on my cot 
 discouraged, depressed at the sordidness of 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA. 201 
 
 it all, the damnedness of what was going on 
 so near us. Miss Porter, in her long white 
 gown, was on her knees in prayer. Sud 
 denly oh, Eleanor, I cannot tell you you 
 will think me mad with the heat and burden 
 of it all ! But it was as real as I am. Sud 
 denly, over against the kneeling figure, I was 
 conscious of a spirit presence not a shape, 
 but a point of purity, a spot of holiness. I 
 scarcely breathed. Through my soul then 
 surged the words, " Fear not, I am with 
 thee" "Not by might nor by power, but 
 by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts," and 
 I do not know how many other words, and 
 then the verses, " Encamped against the walls 
 of sin" and so forth. 
 
 I do not know how long I sat there, scarcely 
 breathing. I seemed aware of a conflict rag 
 ing in the air of forces spiritual and forces 
 devilish, and all at once I became convinced 
 of certain Scripture which I had always 
 doubted. I fell upon my knees in worship 
 and tears, and when I arose, the vision had 
 departed. 
 
 " Now let thy servant depart in peace, for 
 there has been revealed unto her the glory 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Beloved, all the heartaches, the loneliness, 
 the physical suffering, were compensated for 
 
202 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 in that hour. I would go through it all again, 
 aye, and more, a hundredfold more, for 
 another such experience. 
 
 ***** 
 
 . . . Bhogav is a lovely spot in the bend 
 of a winding river. The village consists of 
 little thatched huts, squatting contentedly 
 beneath bending bamboos, while our tents 
 are pitched in a magnificent mango grove. 
 In spite of the shade, however, the only way 
 I survive at noon is by lying flat, with two 
 wet towels on my head, my solar topee, and 
 an umbrella spread over all. 
 
 At first the people ran at the sight of us, 
 but they have at last yielded to our charm, 
 and yesterday my assistant and I treated five 
 hundred and seventy-four patients. Of course 
 we do not make any very fine diagnostic 
 points in fact, their diseases are usually evi 
 dent upon the surface but we hand out the 
 medicines needed we have the most common 
 mixtures all prepared as they pass along. 
 The people fairly mob us. While we see the 
 patients, the others do the preaching, there 
 being from five hundred to one thousand in 
 front of the preaching tent all day long. 
 
 Oh, India, how great is thy need ! 
 
 How I long for my old-time vigour and 
 health to grapple with this heathenism which 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 203 
 
 is sapping the life and hope of these mil 
 lions. But as my heart is wrung for them, 
 and cries out inarticulately after them, I find 
 health barriers shutting me away from them, 
 limiting my every effort. 
 
 Our next move will be over the mountains 
 and towards the coast, with Ratnigiri as our 
 objective point. 
 
 Bombay, April, 
 Our tour reached its climax with fifty-three 
 miles of up-and-down mountain road behind 
 two tottering bags of bones called by courtesy 
 horses, and then when one of the poor 
 wretches seemed like to die we finished with 
 a pair of bullocks and a driver who was only 
 kept from robbing us by an occasional glimpse 
 of my faithful gun. 
 
 It was a relief to escape the dry, fierce 
 heat of the Deccan, though the moist, hot 
 coast weather made us limp as rags. I 
 stayed on some time for the sea-bathing, 
 hoping it would do something for my fever, 
 and was startled to see how my energetic 
 soul could lounge around day after day, 
 doing nothing but gaze at the picturesque 
 palm trees, the fishing-smacks dotting the 
 harbour, the stretch of the blessed sea, and 
 the calm of the splendid moon. 
 
204 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 There is such a funny brass band at Rat- 
 nigiri, which exists solely for the benefit of old 
 King Thebauld. The poor fellow was once 
 ruler of Burmah, but he did not wield the 
 sceptre in accordance with British ideas, and 
 so was brought " across India and the South 
 Seas " to spend the remainder of his life in 
 captivity, receiving a huge allowance as the 
 price of his freedom. I know an English 
 governess who was formerly at his court. 
 She used to be afraid to eat lest she should 
 be poisoned by some of the court intriguers, 
 and is on record as having approached His 
 Majesty on her knees to beg for her own life. 
 
 The unfortunate man is now paying the 
 penalty not only for his own sins, but for the 
 misdemeanours of his wives, whose mutual 
 jealousies and plottings to enthrone their 
 respective sons brought the kingdom to its 
 doom. 
 
 The sea trip up to Bombay was an expe 
 rience. Carried in a chair through the surf 
 by coolies, deposited in a small boat and 
 paddled out to sea, poised on the edge of 
 that until the waves gave a favourable lunge 
 towards the steamer, and then springing and 
 clutching the ladder by which you scramble 
 up and over the side ; then ninety unspeaka 
 ble miles surrounded by hordes of seasick 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 205 
 
 natives, with a Mussulman captain blue- 
 coated and scarlet-bearded, emblem of his 
 pilgrimage to holy Mecca who thinks a 
 woman no better than so much merchandise ; 
 and you can imagine with what joy I sighted 
 Bombay and how I wanted to embrace the 
 first white person I saw on the wharf. 
 
 I have decided to spend the hot season in 
 Ceylon, hoping much from the voyage down. 
 If that fails, I fear the next thing will be a 
 break for " me ain countrie." 
 
 Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon, June, 19 . 
 Dear Girl : 
 
 It is many a long day since I have 
 written you longer than I had intended, 
 but now that the monsoon has burst in all its 
 fury, and compels me to remain within doors, 
 I shall make up for lost time. Your reply to 
 my last letter lies open before me what a 
 comfort you are to me, Eleanor I do not 
 know how I could live without your letters. 
 You bid me come home to God s country 
 and get well, and I very much fear that that 
 will be the end, and at no very distant date. 
 I hate always to be writing you of my health 
 or lack of it but that is my only excuse 
 for making a grand fizzle of my career, and I 
 must make the most of it. To think that all 
 
206 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 my hopes and aspirations must be sacrificed 
 for such a reason is the most maddening 
 thing. And yet I am learning patience with 
 it all, and my independent spirit is giving 
 place to a dependent trust which I sometimes 
 eye askance, so foreign is it to my nature. 
 I shall be reduced to the clinging-vine type 
 all right by the next time you see me. In fact, 
 when anything dominant, strong, controlling, 
 appears above my horizon, I have an almost 
 irresistible tendency to stick in my tendrils, 
 but put it down with a strong hand and a 
 reminder of my youthful ambitions. 
 
 But to return. The voyage to Colombo 
 was anything but what I had planned. The 
 breeze was all behind us, travelling at about 
 the same rate as the boat, so we sweltered in 
 a stilly atmosphere just above the equator, 
 and lost our last vestige of vitality. The day 
 we landed in Colombo I succumbed to a 
 violent illness, and was cared for in a mis 
 sionary retreat by a motherly Englishwoman 
 until able to travel to the mountains. The 
 retreat is an old English club-house, guarded 
 by sentinel palms, on the shore of a rippling 
 lake, and just beyond a green " thank-you- 
 ma am " is the expanse of restless sea. To 
 lounge by the lake and watch the ducks and 
 swans ride its wavelets, or to rickshaw along 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IK INDIA 207 
 
 Galle Face and see the white-crested surf 
 break bellowing on the shore, the great bluey- 
 green far, far out against the sky, where sails 
 dip and the smoke from many ships mingles 
 with the clouds, was my convalescent occupa 
 tion until I was well enough to undertake the 
 journey to Nuwara Eliya. 
 
 Such an enervating, dreamy, garden-land 
 it is down there, with its tropical growth, 
 through which flit groups of yellow-robed 
 Buddhist priests, strangely dressed lay people, 
 and little brown children. Breezes are spicy, 
 strands are coral, every prospect pleases, and 
 only man is as usual. 
 
 I never did learn to distinguish the 
 women from the men, the latter with their 
 long hair arranged in a coil at the back of 
 the head, surmounted with a circular comb, 
 and if it happens to be curly, a few ringlets 
 in front. A white gauze shirt, a silken scarf, 
 a straight, skirt-like drape reaching to the 
 ground, and the effect is complete. 
 
 Just now I am living on a tea-plantation 
 which occupies the eastern slope of a great 
 hill, having been invited, nay, insistently car 
 ried off, by the sweetest little English woman 
 you can imagine. Her bairns are my chief 
 delight every morning they place flowers 
 upon my window sill before I am up, and 
 
208 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 each day sees me crowned with roses and 
 fragrant violets. 
 
 But I must not neglect to tell you of the 
 interim, when I first came to the heights. 
 The Madame of the retreat sent me to a 
 sister Madame here, who, though very old and 
 deaf, did her best at coddling me back to 
 health. Two missionaries, whom I early 
 dubbed the " Stoic " and " Sentimental 
 Tommy" were occupying a small cottage 
 next the bungalow, and taking meals with 
 Madame. Tommy had two intimate military 
 friends, the " Baby Elephant," so called be 
 cause very young and very elephantine in 
 proportions, and the " Warrior," of superb 
 physique, witty, and original. 
 
 The marvel of the friendship, and the key 
 to the whole situation, lay in the curious fact 
 that the " Baby " and the " Warrior " had 
 religious inclinations, and the four of them 
 were my body-guard to prayer-meetings, 
 divine services and other such festive func 
 tions, which, under the cirumstances, I 
 attended with considerable zest. My weak 
 ness and semi-invalid state seemed to call 
 out all their chivalry, and one or another of 
 them was always walking by my rickshaw, 
 or bringing me books, papers, or flowers. 
 One day we all went to Hakgalla Gardens, 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 209 
 
 lunching in a lovely arbour overlooking a 
 vast plain, and while the " Warrior " and I 
 cracked jokes and kept the "Baby" in gales of 
 laughter, "Tommy" gazed dreamily across 
 the vistas to the misty peaks in the distance. 
 The day was spent in photographing choice 
 views and exclaiming over rare plants, until 
 the sun began to sink towards the horizon, 
 when we started home, the guard taking 
 turns in assisting the rickshaw coolies up the 
 steep road. We kept them all for dinner that 
 evening, and while Madame poured after- 
 dinner coffee in the drawing-room, we talked 
 sense and nonsense, and " Tommy " and I al 
 most had a quarrel. I was supremely happy, 
 and so thankful that I was at last old enough 
 and decrepit enough to be able to help young 
 men Madame does not count, being deaf 
 and give them a good time ; and as we sat 
 by the cozy fire I praised Providence for my 
 opportunities ; but it was too soon, for good 
 ness me ! that very evening two of them be 
 gan to wax sentimental "Tommy," of 
 course, and the " Warrior " ! and despite 
 my glass eye and wig I had to meet and quell 
 glances from soulful eyes, and finally to con 
 duct laboriously learned conversations on 
 books, the last theological heresy, and mili 
 tary tactics. 
 
210 A BLUESTOCKING IK 
 
 As our little evening company broke up, 
 " Tommy " suggested that we walk a short 
 distance with the military, and as the moon 
 was superb, I yielded ; but not without dis 
 astrous consequences, as you may be able to 
 imagine. The walk back was altogether too 
 leisurely, but I shall not tell you what 
 "Tommy" said. 
 
 They all left soon after that, including 
 Madame, and I came to live at the planta 
 tion. The "Warrior" sends me a paper 
 now and then, and has written for the " ines 
 timable privilege " of meeting me in Colombo 
 and showing me some of the charming drives 
 along the sea-front. 
 
 I shall leave in a few days, and plan to re 
 turn home by rail, stopping at Kandy, Co 
 lombo, Madura and Bangalore for rest, and 
 incidentally a little sightseeing. 
 
 Shahapur, Aug., ip . 
 Dear old Eleanor : 
 
 The die is cast ! My passage is en 
 gaged, and I am to sail in three weeks. I can 
 scarcely hold myself down at the mere 
 thought of it. Won t it be " beastly jolly " 
 to be home again, and to see your dear faces 
 once more ? And yet, not all, for some of 
 my loved ones will not be there to greet the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 211 
 
 returning wanderer ; some who even in these 
 short years have gone down into the great 
 silence never to return. I have not realized 
 that even yet the bitterness of it is still to 
 come. But the sweetness, oh, the sweetness, 
 of being surrounded with my dear ones once 
 again ! 
 
 The thought of leaving my beloved India 
 is a sad one if I even imagined it would be 
 forever, I could not bear the thought of part 
 ing, but a year will recuperate my flagging 
 energies, I am sure, and then I will return to 
 fill in a niche already prepared for me. For 
 what do you think ? Some of my royal and 
 wealthy patrons are planning to build a 
 woman s hospital here in S., and insist 
 upon my taking charge of it, saying that it 
 will be all ready in less than two years. I 
 am so gratified, so touched, that I do not 
 know what to do. I builded better than I 
 knew when I spent my very life for this 
 stricken people, and all the time I thought 
 them stoically indifferent to my interest, sym 
 pathy, and tireless efforts. But compensa 
 tion never, never fails, and though I have 
 lost my health temporarily I have won 
 something far more precious the love and 
 gratitude of these people, most of them ig 
 norant, some of them educated, all supersti- 
 
212 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 tious and fatalistic to a degree inconceivable 
 to you. 
 
 And I ? I have a passion for them which 
 I cannot name. It is no wonder the good 
 Lord loves us after all we have cost Him. 
 And my efforts little, weak, but my all, my 
 best have been spent for them, till I love 
 every soul that walks through this vast and 
 dusky land. When will they be delivered 
 from famine, pestilence, crime? When will 
 the imploring voices of oppressed women, 
 the wails of girl children be heard ? When 
 will the temples be opened to the light of day 
 and the priestesses of unspeakable rites be set 
 free ? Oh, India ! If I have penetrated thy 
 almost hopeless gloom with one tiny bright 
 ray, I am more than repaid, and ready to re 
 turn and complete the sacrifice. 
 
 Since my return from Ceylon, I have been 
 able to do scarcely anything. I am not really 
 ill, you know, but just weak and good-for- 
 nothing. It is remarkable how well I look, 
 however. Though thin, the fever gives me 
 flushed cheeks, and my dull eyes brighten 
 with the least excitement. I have tried to 
 attend to the professional needs of the com 
 pound, but any overexertion has brought on 
 such a state of collapse that all have con 
 spired to make my lot an easy one. For- 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 213 
 
 tunately there has been very little sickness 
 thus far. 
 
 I go out to a social function now and then, 
 when I am the gayest of the gay, owing to 
 the ease with which my shattered nerves re 
 spond to the slightest stimulus. When time 
 drags too heavily I try desultory piano-prac 
 tice, but generally I am content to relapse 
 into a state of innocuous desuetude, " not 
 much remembering the days of my life, because 
 God answereth me in the joy of my heart." 
 
 At present the commander of a British 
 cruiser is visiting here while his ship lies up 
 in Bombay Harbour for repairs. He is a 
 jolly old bachelor, and I like him tremen 
 dously. As usual, I have been invited to 
 many functions in his honour, to " make out 
 the evens," and we have struck up a great 
 friendship. He " vamps" for all the college 
 and plantation songs, while his host, Captain 
 O Hagan, dramatizes them. 
 
 He it was who forced me to the piano one 
 evening in spite of all my protests, for out 
 here I have never been reputed a musician 
 other than a baby organist. Then did I 
 thank heaven for recent " desultory practice," 
 and to save my face played some of those de 
 licious minor things from Grieg. 
 
 They were all really stunned they were 
 
214 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 so surprised and all the " wives " fell upon me 
 for having kept this thing hidden for so long. 
 
 After each function I spend two days pros 
 trate in bed thus do I pay the price of a lit 
 tle variety. 
 
 My mind is being unduly distracted by the 
 "real life" going on at my window. The 
 vine trained over it is a favourite resort for 
 chameleons and lizards of all sorts, and just 
 now one is hungrily eyeing a fine fat fly 
 buzzing noisily on the inside of the pane. 
 After playing possum some minutes to no 
 purpose, he decided to assume the aggres 
 sive, and gave a fierce leap right at his un 
 suspecting, longed-for victim. Not being 
 inured to the properties of glass, he failed to 
 understand his defeat, and has repeated his 
 attempts at regular intervals, though failing 
 every time. 
 
 There may be a virtue in recognizing defeat, 
 though a transparent barrier is sometimes 
 difficult to see. But my time has not come yet. 
 
 I must go to dress now, for H. M. S. is 
 coming to try some new music. 
 
 On Arabian Sea, Sept., 19 . 
 My dear Eleanor: 
 
 Seas are blue, heavens are blue, all is 
 blue but my heart, which is surely roseate- 
 
A BLUESTOCKJNG IN INDIA. 215 
 
 hued or I could not be so supremely con 
 tented and happy. The softest breezes play 
 across my face, placid waters stretch away to 
 the horizon, to blend there with the azure 
 sky. 
 
 For days I have done nothing but lie back 
 in my chair and dream and rest, having 
 slept, I imagine, about fifteen hours out of 
 the twenty-four. Already I feel like a differ 
 ent being. New life is stirring within me, a 
 fresh, boundless hope possesses my soul, and 
 I foresee a speedy return to perfect health 
 and my beloved work. 
 
 For the past two days I have been keenly 
 alive to the human nature on board, which 
 affords me never-failing amusement. I have 
 formed a great friendship with two American 
 girls both missionaries, and the very cream 
 for companionship and charm. One is go 
 ing home for a surgical operation, and is 
 rather weak in the knees from anticipation of 
 the same. She is exactly my style, full of 
 fun, a good dresser, and alas that candour 
 compels me to admit my own failing a flirt 
 from the day she was born. The other is 
 her medical attendant, with a Madonna face 
 crowned with massive braids of brown hair, 
 who is everybody s good angel, mothers all 
 the children on board, and only smiles se- 
 
216 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 renely when La Petite and I give her a shock. 
 We have places together at the captain s 
 table, and derive no end of fun studying and 
 discussing our fellow passengers, most of 
 whom are English officers and their wives 
 except one, who is an officer without the 
 wife, and who, upon careful inspection, 
 proved to be my jungle-rescuer and one-time 
 hero of Rawalpindi, Captain now Major 
 Flanagin. I have studiously avoided him, 
 only bowing distantly when I find his gaze 
 fixed directly upon me. 
 
 All the English wives let us severely alone 
 because we are Americans and missionaries, 
 but they cannot be any more exclusive than 
 we. Whenever La Petite begins to look 
 bored, I draw my chair up to hers and begin 
 the poetry of the day. We have written a 
 jingle about nearly every passenger on board, 
 and they are so absurd that we nearly perish 
 with laughter, which makes us the envy of 
 all the disconsolates. To each we have given 
 a name : " The Mask " to a colonel whose 
 inscrutable smile might cover any amount of 
 villainy ; " M. P." to my vis-a-vis at table, 
 who seemingly carries the reputation of the 
 English nation upon his slender shoulders ; 
 " Taciturnity " to a Portuguese who cannot 
 speak or understand any other language ; 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 217 
 
 " The Sport " to a very gay major ; " Inter 
 national " to my jungle hero, because he talks 
 with every one available and makes himself 
 generally entertaining whenever he can tear 
 himself away from bridge. And then the 
 " Admiral," the "Prince," and the "Laird" 
 are Italian naval officers coming home from 
 China, where they have been with their 
 battle-ship for the past three years. The 
 "Admiral" is a dear little man, with kindly 
 eyes and a fatherly face, but the other two 
 are young and eager. The " Prince " is dark 
 and thoughtful, the " Laird " light and mass 
 ive, and the latter spends most of his time 
 on deck, ostensibly reading a book, but in 
 reality watching La Petite *s every movement, 
 while the " Prince " promenades gravely in 
 front of our chairs. 
 
 There are also " Beauty and the Beast " 
 a horrible, dark-skinned man with a hand 
 some, exquisitely dressed bride, who employs 
 every known wile to attract the " Laird " to 
 her side. 
 
 The flirtations carried on by the wives are 
 a constant source of shock to me. " Inter 
 national " and the Italians are particular fa 
 vourites of theirs, being single men. If you 
 were here you could undoubtedly get some 
 material for your next novel. 
 
218 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 One day out from Naples, 
 
 Sept. 20, /p . 
 
 Soon we shall be saying farewell to our 
 good ship and her freight, among whom we 
 have spent so many pleasant days. I ex 
 pected to write you very often, but the time 
 has been filled to overflowing. The cool 
 breezes and high swell of the Mediterranean 
 remind us that home is near and help to shut 
 off tropical memories. 
 
 But I must tell you of our voyage since I 
 last wrote it has been a continuous round of 
 pleasure. As I have been planning to tour 
 in Italy a result of Cousin Betty s gener 
 osity I have my Italian books with me, 
 hoping to brush up enough to enable me at 
 least to call a carriage and order a dinner. 
 Apropos of which it came to pass one day 
 that the " Prince " took a chair next mine at 
 tea, at which function the passengers rarely 
 sit in their assigned places, though La Petite, 
 Madonna, and I always do. What with pass 
 ing the biscuits and salt a conversation en 
 sued, from which date momentous things. 
 Discussing Italian, the " Prince " offered me 
 one of his books and subsequently rendered 
 a deal of valuable assistance, in the mean 
 time improving every opportunity to culti 
 vate La Petite. The next day at tea found 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 219 
 
 the " Prince " reinforced with the " Laird," 
 and the following day I found my vis-fr-vis 
 no other than " International." There was 
 much brilliant conversation, and I was put to 
 it to keep up with the last mentioned, who 
 I found was a well-known writer for the 
 stage. 
 
 Tea conversations grew into greater inti 
 macies, and our little trio quickly found it 
 self the centre of the ship s popularity. The 
 wives proceeded to thaw, especially " Inter 
 national s" sister, who has left her husband 
 an up-country colonel in India. 
 
 The Italians, whose crew of two hundred 
 and fifty men are travelling third class, spared 
 no pains to trim the decks for naval balls 
 and promenades, and we had festive times 
 amid the floating bunting, under the Chinese 
 lanterns, to the music of an orchestra im 
 provised from among the non-commissioned 
 officers and navvies. The first waltz of the 
 dark, Sicilian-blooded " Prince " with airy, 
 fairy Petite, was greeted with a storm of 
 applause. " International " two-steps like a 
 steam-engine, but the " Laird " is to the man 
 ner born. He is, to tell the truth, a younger 
 son of an ancient house in North Italy, and 
 his broken English is too delicious for any 
 thing. 
 
220 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Of course the Madonna does not approve 
 of all this gaiety, and is therefore the more 
 adored. The " Laird " would do anything 
 for her, and she has already presented him 
 with a pocket Testament in English, which 
 he has promised to read. 
 
 At Aden, Port Said, and Messina, we all 
 did the places in carriages, " International s " 
 sister acting as chaperone. We spent an 
 especially charming day in Messina, driving 
 behind their funny little horses through the 
 narrow streets, while every passing flower- 
 girl was relieved of her posies for our Amer 
 ican sakes. Lunch and business filled the 
 remainder of the time, for it was here that 
 the " Prince " received the wire that he was 
 to be an attache of an important embassy 
 into Russia, and the " Laird " a wordy mes 
 sage from his pater entreating him to settle 
 down at home and assume the responsibili 
 ties of citizenship. 
 
 And so idyllic days have passed. What 
 of the future, I wonder? As we steamed 
 away from Port Said at night, and the many 
 lights with their reflections flickered along 
 the pier, I hung over the railing alone, with 
 a great longing in my heart and my eyes 
 suffused with tears. Those lights marked 
 the dividing line between the East and the 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 221 
 
 West. " Some eres east of Suez " I had lived 
 and suffered and almost died. I had been 
 strangely moved with a great passion for a 
 dusky people, I had fought the spirits of 
 darkness, struggled to uplift a banner of 
 light, had pitied, sympathized, wept over 
 conditions and sufferings too horrible to 
 name. 
 
 Already it seemed like another world, fad 
 ing, like an ill-remembered dream. The 
 breezes of the West were blowing seeming 
 films of fantasy from my brain, but I let 
 them go with a cry of pain. 
 
 Then I was claimed by my new-found 
 friends out of the East, and yet of the 
 West, who, with a strange understanding 
 of my mood, drew me away to talk and 
 laughter. 
 
 We have not made many plans. I shall 
 remain with Petite and Madonna in Naples 
 until they sail for New York, and then visit 
 Italian cities at my leisure. Mrs. Colonel 
 has asked me to join her party, and I may 
 do so if nothing else offers. The " Laird " 
 and the " Prince " plan to show us Naples, 
 but they have to report in Rome shortly and 
 will have but little time for us. 
 
 To-morrow will be our day of farewells 
 sad in anticipation, more sad in realization. 
 
222 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 Venice, Oct. 75, /p . 
 Beloved Eleanor : 
 
 A wonderful thing has happened. I 
 scarcely know how to tell you about it. 
 You know I have had many admirers ; you 
 may also recall one though to me it seems 
 like a distant dream to whom I almost 
 gave my heart. Recently I have prided my 
 self upon being proof against a romantic 
 passion ; my career was to have been 
 enough. Think then of my humiliation 
 when it was suddenly borne in upon me that 
 there is just one thing in all the world for 
 me, and that is the major. It came to me 
 suddenly in the Pitti Palace at Florence. 
 We had all been together, but I had stolen 
 back for a last look at Raphael s " Madonna 
 del Granduca." The others missed me, and 
 the major, " International," you know, was 
 sent to find me. His hand just touched my 
 shoulder, as he surprised me standing rapt 
 before the Madonna. " My sister sent me to 
 find you," he said, with his gentle courtesy, 
 and I turned round startled. Something in 
 his touch, the look in his eyes, made my 
 heart beat wildly, and then I knew. But 
 I have had since to be very careful, for fear 
 he may suspect my new discovery. I have 
 wanted to shout with joy ; to sing, to dance ; 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 223 
 
 the Italian sky became more blue than 
 blue; the sun seemed to kiss more raptur 
 ously the swift-flowing Arno, and Venice, 
 with full moon and gondola thrown in, 
 echoes and reechoes the perfect happiness 
 of the universe. 
 
 Last evening, as usual, we were out in the 
 gondola. The reflections in the canal were 
 extraordinarily clear, Santa Maria dei Sa- 
 luti looming out of the water like a dream 
 palace under the moon, and the lights of 
 the Piazetta and the Doges palace twin 
 kling brilliantly in the opposite direction. 
 " International," who speaks Italian very 
 well, instructed the gondolier to move up 
 beyond the musicians boats and the hun 
 dreds of gondolas which thronged the canal, 
 to a spot opposite the Bridge of Sighs, 
 whence we could escape the crowds and 
 hear the voices of the singers softened 
 by distance. Mrs. Colonel and her friends 
 carried on a ceaseless conversation, in which 
 I did not join, for the mystery of the night 
 and the place were upon me, and I could 
 not talk. " International " was silent too, 
 but after a time began in a desultory way to 
 say that we must have been well acquainted 
 in a previous incarnation, for he had never- 
 been able to erase the impression of having 
 
224 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 known me before. I laughed and responded 
 by telling him the tale of a maid lost in the 
 jungle, and of her rescue by a booted and 
 spurred cavalier. " By Jove ! " he exclaimed, 
 " of course that was you ! Why did I never 
 connect things up before ? " 
 
 Then he continued in an undertone to dilate 
 mockingly upon the risk he had incurred and 
 the bravery he had manifested, and to speak 
 a shade more seriously of awards to the 
 brave. 
 
 I have to be on my mettle to parry and 
 fence when talking with him, and it is a ter 
 rible effort when your heart is timid with a 
 new-found joy. 
 
 By the way, he has been in Virginia and 
 thinks her daughters rare specimens in the 
 literary line I told him of you. 
 
 It was very late when we finally left the 
 mystic out-of-doors, to turn in at our hotel 
 and stretch our bodies to rest. I pressed a 
 burning face and wet eyes to my pillow only 
 to begin an endless, restless, waking dream 
 of the major. 
 
 New York, Dec. /, /p . 
 Dearest Eleanor : 
 
 The sunshine is pouring in at my south 
 window trying to rival the sunshine in my 
 
A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 225 
 
 heart, but it cannot hold a candle to that. 
 To tell the truth, I am deliriously happy too 
 happy by far to do anything but flutter and 
 sing, for I have a letter pressing down the 
 glad throbs of my little beater to quiet it a 
 letter which tells of the struggle of a deep love 
 against a meagre hope. 
 
 But you are all in the dark, of course, and 
 I must compose my tumultuous feelings suf 
 ficiently to shed some light over into your 
 gloomy corner, for all the world is in shadow 
 compared with the glory of my immediate 
 environment. 
 
 When I landed in New York Cousin Betty 
 at once took me in hand, and consulted her 
 own medical adviser and the great nerve 
 specialist who used to lay us all out in student 
 days. The result was an order to take the 
 "rest cure" without interruption for four 
 weeks, and if that proved insufficient, more 
 and indefinitely. I have been a remarkably 
 tractable patient, considering that I knew 
 much more about my own case than all the 
 nerve specialists in the world combined, and 
 that my cure depended upon more than their 
 philosophy could even dream of. But I was 
 so tired, and had been for two years, that I 
 was glad enough to rest, and I could not tell 
 them that my neurasthenia at least the last 
 
226 A BLUESTOCKING IN INDIA 
 
 edition of it was of that silly schoolgirl type 
 occasioned by love with the lover missing. 
 
 So now you understand why I have not 
 written, why I have not been home to clasp 
 all you dear ones in my arms my poor old 
 shell has had to be rebuilt before it could 
 weather even the gales of your affection. 
 
 To-day I was permitted my mail. Your let 
 ter with its cheer and welcome brought tears 
 and smiles. 
 
 And that other letter ! He had tried to for 
 get me, he says. Then he speaks of that day 
 when I said farewell to them all and em 
 barked for America ; he thought he had read 
 love in my eyes, but the perennial indifference 
 of my attitude had obscured the vision, and 
 he concluded that his case was hopeless. 
 
 He says he will board the first steamer if 
 he receives an atom of encouragement. 
 
 Never in my life before have I been ready 
 to let go, to yield, to be managed. The doc 
 tor says I cannot return to professional life 
 it is too strenuous. Providence has arranged 
 obstacles to destroy my career, and avenues 
 to bring about my happiness, and I can but 
 sing a glad song of gratitude and praise. 
 
 I have written him to come, and shall wait 
 here until after his arrival. After that 
 
 ADIEU 
 
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