There
were orphan goats and calves, starving kittens and dogs. The blind,
the maimed, the wounded of the animal creation, here found a home. I
confess that I admire the religion that believes in animals having a
kind of soul and a future, and permits their having a refuge where at
least no one can hurt them, and where they can get food and shelter.
God is too just to create things, without any fault of their own, only
for slow and constant torture, for death, and utter annihilation.
Turning now to society at Bombay, and indeed Indian society generally,
I must say that it is not to be outdone for hospitality. There is a
certain amount of formality about precedence in all English stations,
and if one could only dispense with it society would be twice as charming
and attractive. I do not mean of course the formality of etiquette and
good-breeding, but of all those silly little conventions and rules which
arise for the most part from unimportant people trying to make themselves
of importance. Of course they make a great point about what is called
"official rank" in India, and the women squabble terribly over their
warrants of precedence: the gradations thereof would puzzle even the
chamberlain of some petty German court. The Anglo-Indian ladies of
Bombay struck me for the most part as spiritless. They had a faded,
washed-out look; and I do not wonder at it, considering the life they
lead. They get up about nine, breakfast and pay or receive visits,
then tiffen, siesta, a drive to the Apollo Bunder, to hear the band, or
to meet their husbands at the Fort, dine and bed--that is the programme
of the day.
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