Infantry, there were a number of Civil servants, as well as the staff of the South Indian Railway, who had their quarters at Trichinopoly. All alike greeted us warmly with the old-fashioned hospitality which is fast dying out in these days of many tourists and hotels. The calling began as usual, but was not such a lengthy business as in Madras. The distances were not so great and the number of people considerably smaller.
There was plenty of parochial work among the men employed on the railway and occupying subordinate posts in the different Government services. Several old pensioners had married Eurasian wives and had settled in the place. Our work among these various members of the congregation was very pleasant. They were for the most part highly respectable men and women of refined manners and gentle ways, who were earning an honest living and doing honour to the name of the class to which they belonged. It was not their fault but their misfortune that a contingent of the very poor and very dark-skinned should be living in the same place, and that these feeble folk often brought the whole community into bad odour with undiscerning Europeans by their feckless ways. Poverty was undoubtedly the lot of these, and it was impossible to raise them out of their impecuniosity. Their propensity to spend not only what they had but also what they could borrow was incorrigible. They shared with the Hindus a view of debt that was entirely different in its moral aspect from that which is inculcated in the English mind. They saw no harm in being in debt, and esteemed it a sign of importance to owe a large sum.
This fact was exemplified in the reply given to me when a native dhoby died. A great tamasha was made over his funeral. I inquired if he were a man of any distinction among his caste men, and were possessed
