Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
tress , then , is not merely a necessary element of our nature , but a sacred instinct of the heart , and it behoves all of us not to allow ourselves to become hardened against its dictates . The most prosperous may , some time or other , stand in need of that assistance which they once bestowed ; and woeful , indeed , must the reflections of that man be , whose conscience , in the season of calamity , whispers hissingly to his quailing spiritthat in the day of his abundancehe never did any thing towards
, , the relief of the destitute , or the solace of the wretched . "" However that may be , I can declare , from no inconsiderable experience , that the natives of this country are , generally speaking , prompt to hold out a helping hand to the poor man . It must , at the same time , be admitted , that they do not appear to know how to systematise their charities . The educated among them will not , for a moment , maintain , that the miserable pittance doled out by some of their most wealth
y members on occasions of skrad , have the slightest pretence to the sacred name of charity . On the contrary , the sums thus squandered , become instrumental in producing much evil . In the aggregate the amount is usually large , and if concentrated in some public benevolence , would be productive of lasting benefit , whereas to many of the thousands and thousands , the prospect of receiving the paltry dole of four , five , six , or eight annas becomes a mischievous snareluring them from a great
dis-, tance perhaps , and drawing them away from their daily work , and their homes , to become , many of them , victims of disease or death itself . I say not this merely upon my own authority , but that of my worthy and enlightened friend Dewan Ram Commul Sen , and I am pretty sure that my friend , Baboo Rassomoy Dat , whom I have the pleasure of seeing
here , is of the same opinion , " The usual mode of relief was for a really maimed being , or one labouring under some chronic ailment , to procure a certificate from a medical man ; or a person labouring under some temporary distress hy the death of the father , guardian , or head of the family , applied to some humane gentleman well known on'Change , who , perhaps , knew the said father or guardian , requesting that he would sign a certificate recommending the bearer to the aid of the charitabldisposed . In either
y case the certificate became an heir-loom , and a certain source of maintenance , and although the distress on the second instance might be but of a temporary nature , still contributions continued ever after to be levied on the certificate . Too often these certificates , having served a purpose , on the death of a party fell into other hands , to be rendered equally available as by the first , while a rag of it held together , or it was sold to persons neither maimed nor sick , but labouring under that often
incurable malady , an aversion to work , or a strong predilection for fluids more genial than tank water . Nothing was so common in those days as to see young females gaudily dressed , flaunting about in palankeens , from house to house , petition in hand . If one of these came to a married man ' s door , she sent in the petition to the Sahib by one of the servants ; if , however , the occupant of the house were a bachelor , the lady acted differently—she would then aliht from her palankeenand without
g , the ceremony of announcement , step trippingly into the parlour , and dropping the most graceful curtesy she could command , flourish her petition into the gentleman ' s hand . 1 need scarcely say that this procedure was generally found irresistible . These petitions were generally scrawled over with various initials , each so marvellously like the other , that the same pen appeared to have traced them . Opposite these modest
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
India.
tress , then , is not merely a necessary element of our nature , but a sacred instinct of the heart , and it behoves all of us not to allow ourselves to become hardened against its dictates . The most prosperous may , some time or other , stand in need of that assistance which they once bestowed ; and woeful , indeed , must the reflections of that man be , whose conscience , in the season of calamity , whispers hissingly to his quailing spiritthat in the day of his abundancehe never did any thing towards
, , the relief of the destitute , or the solace of the wretched . "" However that may be , I can declare , from no inconsiderable experience , that the natives of this country are , generally speaking , prompt to hold out a helping hand to the poor man . It must , at the same time , be admitted , that they do not appear to know how to systematise their charities . The educated among them will not , for a moment , maintain , that the miserable pittance doled out by some of their most wealth
y members on occasions of skrad , have the slightest pretence to the sacred name of charity . On the contrary , the sums thus squandered , become instrumental in producing much evil . In the aggregate the amount is usually large , and if concentrated in some public benevolence , would be productive of lasting benefit , whereas to many of the thousands and thousands , the prospect of receiving the paltry dole of four , five , six , or eight annas becomes a mischievous snareluring them from a great
dis-, tance perhaps , and drawing them away from their daily work , and their homes , to become , many of them , victims of disease or death itself . I say not this merely upon my own authority , but that of my worthy and enlightened friend Dewan Ram Commul Sen , and I am pretty sure that my friend , Baboo Rassomoy Dat , whom I have the pleasure of seeing
here , is of the same opinion , " The usual mode of relief was for a really maimed being , or one labouring under some chronic ailment , to procure a certificate from a medical man ; or a person labouring under some temporary distress hy the death of the father , guardian , or head of the family , applied to some humane gentleman well known on'Change , who , perhaps , knew the said father or guardian , requesting that he would sign a certificate recommending the bearer to the aid of the charitabldisposed . In either
y case the certificate became an heir-loom , and a certain source of maintenance , and although the distress on the second instance might be but of a temporary nature , still contributions continued ever after to be levied on the certificate . Too often these certificates , having served a purpose , on the death of a party fell into other hands , to be rendered equally available as by the first , while a rag of it held together , or it was sold to persons neither maimed nor sick , but labouring under that often
incurable malady , an aversion to work , or a strong predilection for fluids more genial than tank water . Nothing was so common in those days as to see young females gaudily dressed , flaunting about in palankeens , from house to house , petition in hand . If one of these came to a married man ' s door , she sent in the petition to the Sahib by one of the servants ; if , however , the occupant of the house were a bachelor , the lady acted differently—she would then aliht from her palankeenand without
g , the ceremony of announcement , step trippingly into the parlour , and dropping the most graceful curtesy she could command , flourish her petition into the gentleman ' s hand . 1 need scarcely say that this procedure was generally found irresistible . These petitions were generally scrawled over with various initials , each so marvellously like the other , that the same pen appeared to have traced them . Opposite these modest