Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/43

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SURAT.

Is it strange, then, that the collectors should try to give Sayed Edroos another lease of life as councillor to Sir James Fergusson? But this sort of happy-family arrangement will not do in these days—at least, Itrust, not in the days of Sir James. The Sayed Sáheb is an exploded myth. He has ceased to believe in himself, and even his existence has become a matter of doubt. The Gujarát people, therefore, will have none of him. The Presidency protests against the contemplated jobbery of a second term for the Sayed. They say Let us have anybody else,—Mr. Cumu Sulliman,[1] or even Ismal Khán, butler to the Collector of Cobblington; but no Sayed Edroos—they have had enough of his name in official reports of "members present." Let him live,retired—

"The world forgetting, by the world forgot."

As worthy a man as the Sayed is a certain Mohlá[2] of this province. The Mohlaji is at present in hot water. He is the head of a

  1. A wealthy and enterprising upholsterer, and good friend to impecunious subalterns.
  2. Mussulman leader.