-the northern portion thus segregated being
the native town--one has a veritable city of palaces; and when
to these one adds the magnificent suburbs lying beyond the old
circumvallation of the "Mahratta Ditch"--Chitpore, Nundenbagh,
Bobar, Simla, Sealdah, Entally, Ballygunge, Bhovaneepore, Allypore,
Kidderpore--together with the riverward-sloping lawns and stately
mansions of "Garden Reach" on the sea-side of town, and the great
dockyards and warehouses of the right bank of the river opposite the
city, one has enclosed a space which may probably vie with any similar
one in the world for the appearances and the realities of wealth
within it.

But if one should allow this first impression of Calcutta--an
impression in which good eating and the general pampering of the flesh
seem to be the most prominent features--to lead one into the belief
that here is nothing but money-making and grossness, one would commit
a serious mistake. It is among the rich babous, or commercial natives,
of Calcutta that the remarkable reformatory movement known as "Young
India" has had its origin, and it would really seem that the very same
qualities of patience, of prudence, of foresight and of good sense
which have helped these babous to accumulate their wealth are now
about being applied to the nobler and far more difficult work of
lifting their countrymen out of the degradations of old outworn
customs and faiths upon some higher plane of reasonable behavior.

"In truth," said Bhima Gandharva to me one day as were taking our
customary stroll along the Esplanade, "you have now been from the west
of this country to the east of it. You have seen the Past of India: I
wish that you may have at least a glimpse of its Future. Here comes a
young babou of my acquaintance, to whom I will make you known. He is
an enthusiastic member of 'Young India:' he has received a liberal
education at one of the numerous schools which his order has so
liberally founded in modern years, and you will, I am convinced, be
pleased with the wisdom and moderation of his sentiments."

Just as I was reaching out my hand to take that of the babou, in
compliance with Bhima's introduction, an enormous adjutant--one of
the great pouched cranes (_arghilahs_) that stalk about Calcutta
under protection of the law, and do much of the scavenger-work of the
city--walked directly between us, eyeing each of us with his red round
eyes in a manner so ludicrous that we all broke forth in