6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ciation, for in itself it is artless babble enough. Nor is there in 

 it the remotest flavor of cockneyism. The dwellers in Eurasia, 

 poor souls, are born much too far from the sound of Bow Bells. 

 It abounds in odd words and phrases, some of them distinctly 

 related to the native tongues, some of them pure English with a 

 local application. To see a friend off is to "carry her to the 

 station," whether walking or driving. When the syce is ordered 

 to unharness his animal he is expressly told to "open out the 

 horse " ; while " cf course " is to Eurasian what " indeed " is to 

 Virginian, the common accompaniment of every yea and nay. 



It is a hard saying, but it suffers little contradiction, that mor- 

 ally the Eurasians inherit defects more conspicuously than virtues 

 from both the races from which they spring. Drunkenness is not 

 common among them, nor is brutality. As boys they do not rob 

 birds' nests or torment animals or fight, and they never grow up 

 into sportsmen. The more aggressive vices do not flourish among 

 them. But their indolence and un thrift are proverbial, as are their 

 cupidity and instability of character. It is characteristic that the 

 truth is not in them, and they have a marvelous ingenuity in 

 manipulating the lie. In this their knowledge of the sahib's sym- 

 pathies enables them to outdo the Bengali, though their methods 

 are much the same. "With beggars a favorite instrument of ex- 

 tortion is a death-certificate — a mother, a daughter, a baby lies 

 dead at home ; the funeral is a cruel, pressing, immediate neces- 

 sity ; a little money to meet the emergency is but a small demand 

 upon common humanity. If you are unbelieving, the notice is 

 shown to you in the morning paper — " Suddenly, of cholera, Ma- 

 bel, infant daughter of Charles and Mary De Rosario " — with con- 

 vincing tears. It is probable, however, that the death-certificate 

 is well-nigh worn out in the service of misfortune, and that the 

 tearful applicant for means to bury her never saw the infant 

 daughter of Charles and Mary De Rosario. The social evil 

 among the lower classes is very hideous. They seem to have a 

 code of their own, which is capable of infinite infraction, and they 

 touch a level of degradation which is far lower than any reached 

 by the pure heathen about them. This is apparently an ineradi- 

 cable thing, for it has its root in ph) T sical inheritance and its rea- 

 son is racial. 



Life under however modest conditions is impossible to Euro- 

 peans in Calcutta under a certain income. This is perfectly under- 

 stood by all employers of European labor, which is used for this 

 reason only in posts of superintendence and responsibility. The 

 European's food and lodging must be of a certain quality ; he must 

 have a certain number of servants and certain opportunities for 

 recreation and change to make existence tolerable. The Eurasian 

 will support life, however, upon means of almost vanishing pro- 



