242 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



of the completed Srinagar-Pindi road has raised prices 

 and improved greatly the conditions of life. 



The manufactured goods carpets, embroideries, 

 papier-mache, copper, and silver work when of first- 

 rate quality, command ready purchasers in India and 

 England, and when the merchants thoroughly under- 

 stand that, with artistic productions thoroughness and 

 good taste are more essential than cheapness, city 

 dwellers will have little to complain of. Of course, as 

 in all countries where a new system has been introduced 

 and set working, revolutionising suddenly old methods 

 and old ideas, a certain amount of opposition or half- 

 hearted support go far to mar complete success, and to 

 those to whom modern economical studies are new 

 ground, it is difficult to prove that a system which 

 raises the cost of living, even if it produce higher wages 

 and richer products, can be really desirable. 



Our trump card in working in this protected state, 

 where we can only " advise," leaving the " command " 

 to native officials, has been the impartial energy and 

 acknowledged integrity of our officials. To all and 

 every merchant, and even to lambardars (headmen) of 

 distant villages, the word, even of an unofficial, unknown 

 traveller, is as good as a bond: they will take cheques 

 on unheard-of banks, receive I O U's on scraps of old 

 paper as if they were coin of the realm, and cheerfully 

 consent to manufacture and despatch wares to London 

 without pre-payment, and if there is doubt as to the 

 value of metal in some antique or curio, they will trust 

 to the purchaser to have the same valued fairly out of 

 the country. A small instance of the implicit trust 

 reposed in a Sahib and of the way it is merited was 

 brought to my attention one day in Srinagar by a 



