ily is not worth one
American dollar, while about ten cents in our money will feed a family
of four. The houses have no furniture, except a bed of the most
primitive pattern, made of latticed reeds; the smoke from the cooking
fire goes up through the roof or else finds its way out the open door;
seldom are there any windows, all the air coming in at the open door;
the floor of the house is of dirt and on this squat father and mother
and the children, with the family goat. In the small shops work is
carried on seven days in the week until nine or ten o'clock at night,
with an hour for lunch and siesta at midday. The hopelessness of the lot
of the Hindoo (who is bound by rigid caste rules to follow in the
footsteps of his father) can never be appreciated until one has seen him
here in his native land.

For two hours I watched scores of natives taking a wash at the large,
free bathing ghat near the pontoon bridge. On the river front is a
restaurant, and back of this steps lead down to a spacious platform on
the level of the river. A score of men and boys and one woman were
taking a bath in the dirty water, which was thick with mud washed up by
passing steamers. A few of these bathers had rented towels from an
office on the stairs, but the great majority simply rubbed themselves
with their hands and then dried in the sun. All washed their faces in
the dirty water and rinsed their mouths with it. The men took off their
loin clothes and washed these out, then wrapped them about their bodies
and came out dripping water. The lone woman was very fat. She waded into
the water and when she came out her thin robe clung to her massive form
revealing all its curves. She calmly took a seat on the stairs and
proceeded to massage her head.

The most interesting place near Calcutta is the Royal Botanical Gardens,
situated on the opposite side of the river and about six miles from
town. These gardens were laid out in 1786 and they vie with the botanic
gardens at Singapore in the variety of trees and shrubs from all parts
of the tropics. Here is the great banyan tree which covers one thousand
square feet and is one hundred and forty-two years old. At a height of
five and one-half feet from the ground the circumference of the main
trunk is fifty-one feet; the height is eighty-five feet, while it has
five hundred and seventy aerial roots, which have actually taken root in
the ground. The tree at a little distance looks like a small grove.