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48 - Margaret Sanger; an autobiography by Margaret Sanger · Margaret Sanger; an autobiography

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight of Margaret Sanger by Margaret Sanger. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter thirty eight, Depth,
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Speaker 1: but not Tumult. Of all the cities of India, Bernares
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Speaker 1: left the worst impression on me. So many things, exaggeratedly extolled,
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Speaker 1: do not live up to expectations. I never encountered more
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Speaker 1: confusion of religious symbols. The Temple of Gold, the monkey temple,
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Speaker 1: the snake temple. Quite out of place in a holy city.
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Speaker 1: I did not like temples. They made me feel queer
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Speaker 1: in the middle, so smelly and such relics of ages
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Speaker 1: gone by. Worshippers bowed low, resting their foreheads on the
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Speaker 1: wet and slimy floors where thousands of people were walking
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Speaker 1: in and out. Around the doors were beggars, blind, maimed, diseased.
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Speaker 1: In the grounds were animals of every kind, monkeys, oxen, buffaloes,
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Speaker 1: goats for the sacrifice. Vultures and crows were flying overhead.
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Speaker 1: Most foreigners disliked the Ganges, floating with horrors, but I
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Speaker 1: found it at dawn comparatively clean and by far the
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Speaker 1: most attractive thing there. We had risen early to see
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Speaker 1: the Brahmins. The first comers, men and women, old and young,
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Speaker 1: bathing in the holy water. Mourners were sitting on a
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Speaker 1: hillock some twenty feet away from a burning got still aflame,
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Speaker 1: waiting until the fire died down and the ashes could
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Speaker 1: be swept into the This seemed to me a more
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Speaker 1: wholesome manner of dealing with the dead than the Western
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Speaker 1: custom of burial. Later, Joseph, whose cough was increasing, led
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Speaker 1: us through the narrow streets to the bazaars. Screaming mobs
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Speaker 1: of vendors lured you towards lay shops or to buy
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Speaker 1: brasses or silks. They came up to offer you cards.
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Speaker 1: If you took one, competitors shouted and yelled, He's a liar,
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Speaker 1: a thief, a robber. Don't go with him. His goods
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Speaker 1: are fake. Although some of the wares were exquisite. This
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Speaker 1: ferocity again did not coincide with my conception of a
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Speaker 1: holy city. Allah Abad was more like a college town.
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Speaker 1: And there I visited missus Ranjit Sityam Pandit, the sister
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Speaker 1: of Juwaharl name whom I had met in London. Her
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Speaker 1: home was old and spacious, a nucleus of intellectual thought
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Speaker 1: and activity. She sponsored a meeting to which about six
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Speaker 1: hundred students came. It was inspiring to see fine young
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Speaker 1: people attempting to weave together your philosophy and theirs. They
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Speaker 1: were extremely sensitive, more than most audiences, I think, but
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Speaker 1: as was the case with youth elsewhere, they made light
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Speaker 1: of anything that could be made light of. After the meeting,
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Speaker 1: free literature was announced, and in two minutes it was
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Speaker 1: a regular football rush. We had to throw the pamphlets
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Speaker 1: over their heads to keep them from stampeding the platform
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Speaker 1: in their headlong scramble. At the Poor Das Club, the audience,
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Speaker 1: of course, was entirely women. Many in their early twenties
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Speaker 1: already had large families. They were little accustomed to frank
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Speaker 1: examination of such subjects, but on the other hand did
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Speaker 1: not want mere theories. By the time questions were in order,
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Speaker 1: they had recovered from their giggling and were ready to
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Speaker 1: talk seriously. As usual, some came up afterwards to query
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Speaker 1: me personally on matters that could better and more profitably
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Speaker 1: have been discussed withal. On reaching Agra, we reserved the
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Speaker 1: taj Mahal for sunset. Fortunately only a few people were there,
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Speaker 1: so that the quiet was intensified. Words are inadequate to
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Speaker 1: describe its dignity and chastity. It seemed to breathe the
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Speaker 1: essence of beauty. It was not overwhelming, as were some
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Speaker 1: of the w world's wonders, but it had a perfect simplicity.
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Speaker 1: I stayed until the sun sank, and in the afterglow,
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Speaker 1: the marble shone in a mystic effulgence, like something in
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Speaker 1: another dimension reflected in the still translucent pool. There was
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Speaker 1: not a cloud in the sky, just radiance everywhere. Before daybreak,
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Speaker 1: I climbed again to the top of the gate tower
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Speaker 1: and watched the rising sun cast its shadow on the dome.
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Speaker 1: With reluctance, I turned away to catch the train for Baroda.
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Speaker 1: After a long journey, we arrived at the capital at
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Speaker 1: three in the morning. I had been invited as a
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Speaker 1: state guest, and in spite of the hour, we were
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Speaker 1: met by the Secretary under a handsome hat of red
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Speaker 1: and gold and black. Immediately you felt a touch of
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Speaker 1: Paris in the way clothes were worn in Baroda. Arrangements
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Speaker 1: had been made for my audience with the Gaequar, who
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Speaker 1: had been put on the throne by the British government.
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Speaker 1: He was a most progressive ruler for his two and
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Speaker 1: a half million subjects, aiming at compulsory education and the
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Speaker 1: abolition of caste restrictions. In the immense ante room of
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Speaker 1: the palace were ten or fifteen tall Indians with gorgeous turbans,
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Speaker 1: who must have been more than just ordinary officials. The Gaequar, short,
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Speaker 1: vigorous alert, shook hands and recalled that he had been
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Speaker 1: President of the World Fellowship of Faith at Chicago, which
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Speaker 1: he said had been the greatest honor of his life,
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Speaker 1: and that he remembered my talk there. Her Highness wishes
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Speaker 1: to meet you this afternoon. She is beginning to spend
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Speaker 1: much time on health work, and you must get her
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Speaker 1: interested in what you are doing. She will be a
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Speaker 1: good friend to you. At the appointed hour, I went
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Speaker 1: to see the Maharani, quite different from her husband, very grave,
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Speaker 1: only recently out of Purda and still keeping a separate palace.
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Speaker 1: She knew hardly anything about birth control, but maintained a
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Speaker 1: welfare center for mothers and infants. I had heard from
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Speaker 1: many sources that this class, that class, and the other
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Speaker 1: class would welcome or oppose birth control, none of which
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Speaker 1: statements had hitherto proved to be accurate. The state medical officer,
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Speaker 1: who was very close to the Maharani, had a further thesis,
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Speaker 1: which he stated as he was taking me to the
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Speaker 1: Maharani's settlement, a little place where forty or fifty women,
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Speaker 1: each one with a child, were sitting. These women have
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Speaker 1: been brought up to the duty of having children and
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Speaker 1: are so shy and modest that they would not listen
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Speaker 1: to anything on birth control. He sounded as though he
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Speaker 1: were antagonistic, but he was merely indicating the difficulties as
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Speaker 1: he saw them. I replied that I had never yet
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Speaker 1: encountered women who, when the subject was put to them
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Speaker 1: in a way they could understand, were not eager to
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Speaker 1: hear more. I suggested, there's a mohammadan who has a
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Speaker 1: sickly baby. How old is she twenty? How many children
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Speaker 1: has she three? Did she have more? Two died? How
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Speaker 1: old is this one? Five or six months? Wouldn't she
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Speaker 1: prefer to wait until this baby is strong and well
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Speaker 1: before she has any more. The woman had no opportunity
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Speaker 1: to answer. The whole flock moved up. I do we do?
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Speaker 1: Has this lady something like that? That's what we want.
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Speaker 1: The medical officer was genuinely astonished. I must tell this
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Speaker 1: to her Highness. When I myself saw the Maharani for
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Speaker 1: the second time, she spoke far more favorably of birth control. Eventually,
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Speaker 1: I was on my way to Trevandrum, capital of Travancour,
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Speaker 1: to lend whatever support I could towards the resolution for
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Speaker 1: birth control at the All India Women's Conference. The larger
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Speaker 1: part of the population of this semi independent southern state
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Speaker 1: was of drav origin, among whom child marriage scarcely existed. Here,
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Speaker 1: widows were allowed to remarry. Divorce was permissible for either party,
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Speaker 1: and women occupied a unique position because property descended to
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Speaker 1: the children of a man's sister rather than to his own.
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Speaker 1: Some of the other state guests had already arrived. One
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Speaker 1: charming girl especially attracted me. She was warm hearted, kindly,
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Speaker 1: longing to serve humanity, and prepared to dedicate her life
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Speaker 1: to Gandhi's teachings. When I asked her to what she
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Speaker 1: intended to devote herself, she answered, show the depressed classes
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Speaker 1: that women of my type can clean their latrines. If
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Speaker 1: I can do it, then they will see that it
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Speaker 1: is not such an unworthy occupation. After all, a believing
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Speaker 1: this futile I said, don't you think perhaps you're wasting
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Speaker 1: your efforts. Why not do something constructive, teach the mothers
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Speaker 1: to wash and feed their children properly. She was determined, however,
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Speaker 1: to sacrifice herself. Gandhi wants the the trines cleaned. The
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Speaker 1: Maharani of Travancour say, through Parvati Bai was titular head
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Speaker 1: of the conference, but the guiding spirit was a Parsi
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Speaker 1: from Haderabad, missus Rostoonji Feredoonji, a woman in her fifties,
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Speaker 1: hair almost white, a scholar with command of English, German
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Speaker 1: and French, with the Polish of India and the West
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Speaker 1: as well. Alert and aware of everything going on in
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Speaker 1: the world. She me and several like her, were an
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Speaker 1: inspiration to others of the East and could put to
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Speaker 1: shame many Westerners in their courage and vision. They had
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Speaker 1: seen immediately the necessity of having the movement under the
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Speaker 1: control of public health. In what was virtually a form
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Speaker 1: of socialized medicine. Municipalities were already sending out midwives, nurses
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Speaker 1: and doctors to the poor classes wherever vaccination went. The
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Speaker 1: birth control advocates planned to follow with contraceptive information, with
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Speaker 1: Missus Farradunji and the rest of the committee. I helped
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Speaker 1: to draw up a resolution to this effect. The second afternoon,
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Speaker 1: the Maharani entertained at a garden party. Fountains were splashing,
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Speaker 1: lakes and pools were lustrous in the sunlight. The dancing
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Speaker 1: was executed by children and older girls, the couples moving
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Speaker 1: round and round, precise little steps this way and that,
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Speaker 1: and up to each other without apparently lifting their feet
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Speaker 1: from the ground. The Maharani and I took a short
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Speaker 1: stroll together, and she asked me particularly to come to
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Speaker 1: her palace the next morning at seven o'clock. I had
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Speaker 1: really no idea why she wanted to see me, and
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Speaker 1: was uneasy because the debate over our resolution was to
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Speaker 1: begin at nine. Nevertheless, I obeyed her behest. We started
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Speaker 1: our conversation with a pleasant chat about bringing up children,
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Speaker 1: especially when they were alone in the family without playmates.
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Speaker 1: I realized she was hesitating, overcoming to the point all
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Speaker 1: the time. The minutes were slipping by. Eventually she took
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Speaker 1: the plunge. Her situation as President of the Congress was
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Speaker 1: very delicate. She had been warned that the Catholics would
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Speaker 1: withdraw from the conference if the resolution were past, and
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Speaker 1: hoped therefore I would not find it necessary to speak
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Speaker 1: for it. But I protested, I've been invited especially to
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Speaker 1: present this question. You could substitute another subject which might
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Speaker 1: be of greater importance to India. But what I asked, well,
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Speaker 1: she suggested, why not brothels. It's a disgrace to have
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Speaker 1: brothels in India. Mind you, there are none in Travancore.
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Speaker 1: Indian women won't mention them, but you're an American. You can.
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Speaker 1: What we need most is to do away with brothels.
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Speaker 1: I could readily see the Maharani's position. Her Social secretary
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Speaker 1: a Catholic, and large numbers of her Eurasian subjects were
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Speaker 1: of the same faith. But I said the needs of
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Speaker 1: millions of women in India were more urgent than the
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Speaker 1: demands of a few Catholic missionaries. She took it beautifully
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Speaker 1: and agreed, I shall stay here because I feel the
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Speaker 1: discussion ought to be full and free. She said, I
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Speaker 1: only want you to tell missus Ferradungji to give your
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Speaker 1: opponents two speakers for every one on your side. There
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Speaker 1: was considerable heat. No Indian women were against it, only
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Speaker 1: converted Eurasians. All mothers were for it, and all those
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Speaker 1: against it were unmarried. Never had I heard so much
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Speaker 1: talk of the lusts and passions of men as from
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Speaker 1: the latter. They put forth the same old arguments, absolutely
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Speaker 1: as though a phonograph record had been sent around the world.
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Speaker 1: Nothing could have been more monotonous, repeated as they were
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Speaker 1: from press, platform and books. You might challenge them, break
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Speaker 1: them down, correct them, but to no avail. The greater
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Speaker 1: the vehemence, the more brilliant the opposition thought it had been.
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Speaker 1: You had to ask yourself, how did I phrase that answer?
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Speaker 1: Twenty years ago? We were utterly tired out. When the
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Speaker 1: vote was at last counted, we had won by eighty
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Speaker 1: four to twenty five. The Catholics kept their word. None
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Speaker 1: came back that afternoon, but since it was the end
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Speaker 1: of the conference, this also did not matter. The following
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Speaker 1: day I was off to lecture in Madras. Anna Jane
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Speaker 1: to visit in Ceylon. The solicitous Joseph intimated he was
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Speaker 1: needed more to pick up after her than after me.
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Speaker 1: All right, I agreed, but you don't have to take
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Speaker 1: the luggage with you. Put it in my compartment. Joseph, however,
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Speaker 1: made a mistake and established me on the wrong train.
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Speaker 1: It went no further than Madura. The next morning, about eleven,
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Speaker 1: everybody was told to get out, and there I was
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Speaker 1: with seventeen pieces of luggage of my own and as
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Speaker 1: many more of Anna Jane's. It so happened that a
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Speaker 1: young doctor of Calicut, Manjeri Sunduram, had at Trivendrum, invited
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Speaker 1: me to speak in his city. When I had replied
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Speaker 1: that I could not at this juncture, he had pleaded,
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Speaker 1: I'll go wherever you go. I must talk to you
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Speaker 1: lots and lots and lots whenever you are not sleeping.
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Speaker 1: If you'll allow me, please to come with you and
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Speaker 1: talk to you. I had discouraged him in a most
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Speaker 1: thorough manner. But now he came up to help with
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Speaker 1: my luggage and secured Kolis to sit on it while
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Speaker 1: we saw some thirty acres of temple at Madras. In
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Speaker 1: the Tamil country, the Turbineless natives were much darker, the
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Speaker 1: costumes white and uninteresting. Sir Vipa Ramanson took me in charge.
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Speaker 1: He was a retired judge of the High Court, a
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Speaker 1: very imposing man of means, who had devoted much of
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Speaker 1: his wealth to a little Malthusian magazine and stirred things up.
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Speaker 1: Ever since nineteen thirty, as was customary, the meeting he
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Speaker 1: had arranged was from five to six, which by occidentals
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Speaker 1: is spent ordinarily over tea, cocktails or apertifs, but put
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Speaker 1: by the Indians to good use. The men had left
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Speaker 1: their offices by that time, it was cooler, and still
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Speaker 1: they could get home for dinner. Servipa, handsome, dominant erect
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Speaker 1: in bearing not at all appearing his age, was chairman.
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Speaker 1: Once my forty minute talk was over, he called for
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Speaker 1: questions in his rich, clear voice. A man produced one
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Speaker 1: I thought was simple, but Servipa eyed him severely. That
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Speaker 1: is not allowed. I'll ask it in a different way,
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Speaker 1: and he did so. I still say it is not allowed.
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Speaker 1: May I ask another? Let me hear it. Servipa heard
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Speaker 1: it and dismissed it. That's in the same category argument.
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Speaker 1: The man jumped up and protested loudly. Sit down, roared Servipa,
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Speaker 1: and the man sat as though he had been hit
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Speaker 1: on the head. Some one else five or six seats
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Speaker 1: off brought up a new question, which also seemed easy
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Speaker 1: enough to answer, But again Servipa ruled that does not
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Speaker 1: belong to the subject. The man wilted. Now, the first
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Speaker 1: questioner was passing a paper over his shoulder to a
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Speaker 1: third Indian, who shook his head violently. He declined to
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Speaker 1: be mixed up in it. Query after query was disallowed. Finally,
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Speaker 1: a weak voice on the side asked about the French
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Speaker 1: birth rate. Servipa turned on him and said, you look
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Speaker 1: like an intelligent person, but if you have sat for
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Speaker 1: forty minutes listening to this address and you have not
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Speaker 1: understood it, then you are not intelligent enough to warrant
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Speaker 1: a lady's coming ten thousand miles and wasting her breath.
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Speaker 1: The audience was laughing at ser Vipa's judicial sternness. I,
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Speaker 1: on the other hand, was rather depressed. As we were leaving,
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Speaker 1: I said to him, I wish you had let me
21:30
Speaker 1: reply to them. His expression held surprise. I've been answering
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Speaker 1: them and battling with these same people for twenty five years.
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Speaker 1: They only come to confuse they are enemies of the cause,
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Speaker 1: and I give them no quarter. That settled the situation
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Speaker 1: in Madras. Since I was no more than an hour
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Speaker 1: by motor from Ajar, the former home of Annie Bessant,
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Speaker 1: who had been such an influence in the movement. I
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Speaker 1: made a pilgrimage there. As I walked down winding pathways
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Speaker 1: under huge banyans, cocoa nuts and bananas, ever and again,
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Speaker 1: glimpsing the lovely water of the bay in the distance,
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Speaker 1: I imagined I caught an echo of her words reaching
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Speaker 1: across the decade since I had heard her explain the
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Speaker 1: philosophy of reincarnation. The more you have evolved here on earth,
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Speaker 1: the less certain it is that you will have to
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Speaker 1: return to undo your mistakes. Best clear them up as
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Speaker 1: you go along. Annie Bessant, as soon as she had
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Speaker 1: become a theosophist, had withdrawn her books on population. I
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Speaker 1: was entrusted to find out the attitude of present theosophists
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Speaker 1: towards birth control, and discovered that those at Adjar were
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Speaker 1: persuaded of its importance. Among their beliefs was that great
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Speaker 1: souls did not reincarnate unless the bodies of parents their
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Speaker 1: vehicles for birth were perfect. If they were to perform
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Speaker 1: their missions, they must wait for purity in their physical vestures.
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Speaker 1: I had determined to take advantage of Paul Brunton's offer
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Speaker 1: and visit Sri Ramana Maharshi, the sage of Arunakala, the
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Speaker 1: Quondam hermit of the Hill of the Holy Beacon and
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Speaker 1: one of the last of Hindustan's race of noble rishis. Consequently,
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Speaker 1: one evening, a little after sex, the train came around
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Speaker 1: the bend, and I beheld the sacred Mountain, according to
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Speaker 1: ancient lore, the heart center of the god Siva and
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Speaker 1: therefore of the world. I knew it must be the mountain,
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Speaker 1: even without being told so. The sun had just set
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Speaker 1: and the afterglow gave a lovely, serene effect. The Maharshi's secretary, Shastri,
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Speaker 1: met me and we walked through the gathering dusk to
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Speaker 1: the guest house, about a half mile away, a simple
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Speaker 1: room with veranda in front. Paul Brunton had not been
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Speaker 1: able to come because it was the Maharshi's birthday and
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Speaker 1: thousands of devotees had to be fed. Shastri was very
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Speaker 1: loquacious and wanted me to realize that the apparent success
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Speaker 1: I was having was only with the educated classes. The
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Speaker 1: masses knew nothing of it. This, I said would come
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Speaker 1: in time. After breakfast, I looked out at the great
24:53
Speaker 1: Tamarin trees on the lawn up and down which monkeys ran.
24:59
Speaker 1: Often twenty from babies up to grandparents were in sight
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Speaker 1: all at once. The windows had to be barricaded at
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Speaker 1: night to shut them out of your room. They especially
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Speaker 1: loved bananas, but did not disdain cakes of soap. While
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Speaker 1: I was watching them scamper about, Paul Brunton pedaled up
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Speaker 1: on a bicycle, accompanied by a tonga. For me. The
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Speaker 1: driver cried out continually Haii haii, which seemed to mean
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Speaker 1: both for people to get out of the road and
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Speaker 1: for the white bullock to move faster. He shouted himself
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Speaker 1: hoarse at other drivers who went higglely pigglety this way
25:45
Speaker 1: and that through the streets. We stopped at the market
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Speaker 1: for a few bananas as a gift for the Maharshi.
25:53
Speaker 1: He preferred food to flowers because this he could give away.
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Speaker 1: And we trotted along through the thickly settled village, always
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Speaker 1: hearing far and near the rumbling of the carts and
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Speaker 1: the screeching of the drivers. Hai Hai. At last we
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Speaker 1: reached the ashram at the bottom of the hill. Shastri
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Speaker 1: gathered up the bananas in his hands, but no sooner
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Speaker 1: had he turned to help me out of the Tonga
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Speaker 1: than a temple monkey leaped from a neighboring tree, snatched
26:30
Speaker 1: two of them, and as quick as a flash, had
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Speaker 1: the skins off and had gobbled them down, with no
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Speaker 1: concern whatsoever as to the ethics of his conduct. Instead,
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Speaker 1: he peered around for another grab. Shoes and sandals were
26:47
Speaker 1: left outside the ashram, and Shastri went ahead to announce
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Speaker 1: my arrival. I bowed in the entrance and took my
26:56
Speaker 1: place on the floor just within, crossed my leg under
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Speaker 1: my skirt and looked about me to feel and sense
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Speaker 1: the atmosphere. The Maharshi, naked save for a loincloth, was
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Speaker 1: sitting cross legged on a silk covered couch, pillows behind him,
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Speaker 1: and a leopard skin thrown over the foot. A small
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Speaker 1: charcoal fire and incense, which attendants kept burning all day,
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Speaker 1: sweetened and made heavy the air. The Maharshi's luminous eyes
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Speaker 1: were fixed in a trance, although sometimes his fan lifted
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Speaker 1: a bit and his stare widened. At first it was
27:41
Speaker 1: nicely quiet, Then some women began to sing in a
27:46
Speaker 1: high pitched tone, much through the nose and head, doubtless
27:51
Speaker 1: good for the pineal gland. Once supposed to be the
27:54
Speaker 1: seat of the soul. The men chanted aloud, and someone
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Speaker 1: played stringed instrument. Towards eleven, the Maharshi shared his gifts
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Speaker 1: among those who sat in reflection, and shortly afterwards a
28:10
Speaker 1: man from Cashmere, six feet tall and massively built, entered
28:16
Speaker 1: prostrated himself as hundreds had done already, falling full length,
28:22
Speaker 1: hands outspread above him on the floor, touching his brow
28:27
Speaker 1: three times. As he rose again, his whole body shook,
28:32
Speaker 1: tears streamed down his cheeks. To see women cry from
28:37
Speaker 1: excess of emotion did not bother me. But when a
28:41
Speaker 1: man of such a type as this, in no sense
28:45
Speaker 1: a weakling, went into paroxysms of ecstasy, it was beyond
28:50
Speaker 1: my comprehension. With no critical intent, but curious to know
28:56
Speaker 1: why he had been so moved, we asked what had
28:59
Speaker 1: happened to him? When I came into the Maharshi's presence,
29:06
Speaker 1: it was as though electricity had passed through my body.
29:10
Speaker 1: I felt when I bowed, I would be calmed. Yet
29:13
Speaker 1: when I looked into those eyes, he was like a flame.
29:19
Speaker 1: This pilgrim had come with financial problems, illness in his family,
29:24
Speaker 1: and other troubles. But two or three hours of contemplation
29:29
Speaker 1: had wiped them out. He knew they were insignificant and
29:33
Speaker 1: trivial in contrast to his regeneration in faith. The people
29:39
Speaker 1: in the Ashram were comparable to those who cast away
29:43
Speaker 1: their crutches at some miracle working shrine, except that they
29:47
Speaker 1: had come for inner illumination rather than healing for bodily ailments.
29:53
Speaker 1: They visited the Maharshi to receive the radiance of his soul,
29:58
Speaker 1: just as we saw the sun to be warmed. Only
30:03
Speaker 1: when children or babies were made to prostrate themselves did
30:07
Speaker 1: the Maharshi smile somewhat skeptically. It seemed to me he
30:13
Speaker 1: appeared amused when a boy of three or four began
30:17
Speaker 1: a prayer in tamil, but forgot the rest. Otherwise, he
30:22
Speaker 1: remained apart from it all. He was gradually withdrawing himself
30:27
Speaker 1: and letting go material things he wanted spiritually to fade away,
30:33
Speaker 1: leaving the shell behind. The second day, the Maharshi slept nothing,
30:40
Speaker 1: save an occasional singer broke into the hush, or a
30:44
Speaker 1: monkey had the temerity to dash in and seize an orange.
30:50
Speaker 1: For the third day, I attended the Ashram now The
30:54
Speaker 1: meditation was like a linking up of mind and emotion,
30:59
Speaker 1: where even breathing was stilled. I could understand why the
31:03
Speaker 1: Yogis went into the silence. Even the noises next door,
31:08
Speaker 1: the clatter of dishes, sounded remote and very far away.
31:13
Speaker 1: It was a state of consciousness, rather like that which
31:17
Speaker 1: proceeds sleep. I regretted that I did not feel the
31:23
Speaker 1: Maharshi's power. His utter indifference. Sitting all day in a
31:28
Speaker 1: semi trance, engaging in no activity seemed to me a waste. Nevertheless,
31:36
Speaker 1: I was most grateful to Paul Brunton for the experience
31:40
Speaker 1: and understood the Indians better thereafter. They saw within and
31:46
Speaker 1: beyond the external appearance. This was at the very basis
31:51
Speaker 1: of their character. Akin to the sensitivity of the grape
31:55
Speaker 1: vine telegraph. All people in the Orient spoke, something happened
32:02
Speaker 1: to you or to me, and before you could get
32:05
Speaker 1: to another place by the fastest conveyance, it was known.
32:10
Speaker 1: Perhaps it was a primitive function of mind, this form
32:14
Speaker 1: of thought transference, but it existed there. Doctor Sandarum, who
32:20
Speaker 1: popped up again when I returned to Madras, was still
32:24
Speaker 1: insistent that I go to Calicut, and I finally gave in.
32:29
Speaker 1: I was glad I had done so, because this city
32:32
Speaker 1: of forty thousand, ringed around a bay on the Malabar
32:36
Speaker 1: coast and caressed by gentle breezes, was a beautiful spot
32:41
Speaker 1: with forests of palms. The almost black women wore sarres
32:47
Speaker 1: of very colored blues and greens, violets and yellows, with
32:52
Speaker 1: garlands of jasmine about their necks, plump formal bouquets of
32:57
Speaker 1: roses in their hands, and in the center of every
33:01
Speaker 1: forehead was a circular red cast mark. The meeting was
33:07
Speaker 1: held in the courtyard of a Buddhist temple. The sun
33:11
Speaker 1: was setting and part of the shell pink sky was
33:15
Speaker 1: melting into deep carmen like a flower. Directly in front
33:20
Speaker 1: sat three priests, each with shaved head, orange robe and
33:26
Speaker 1: thick stave. Hundreds of rooks were chattering and other birds
33:31
Speaker 1: twittering in the trees. Children were shouting at their games.
33:36
Speaker 1: The shrill chant of pilgrims walking through the streets saturated
33:41
Speaker 1: the dust filled dusk. Mainly you heard the tinkling of
33:46
Speaker 1: the bullocks going up and down the road. The audience
33:50
Speaker 1: sat in utter silence, surrounded by all these sounds. Two
33:55
Speaker 1: days later, we motored through the heavy woods to Mysore. Joseph,
34:02
Speaker 1: still coughing until it racked his frame, had rejoined me.
34:07
Speaker 1: I took my little drug shop and administered vitamin A
34:11
Speaker 1: and D tablets, curing him and achieving thereby a reputation.
34:17
Speaker 1: Other Indians began hunting up colds and asthma and pains,
34:22
Speaker 1: and coming to me to give them some American medicine
34:26
Speaker 1: in which they had much faith. Soon I was on
34:30
Speaker 1: the train to Bangalore again a state guest. The de
34:36
Speaker 1: Wan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismael knew everybody in Europe,
34:43
Speaker 1: was well informed on Western methods of health, and was
34:46
Speaker 1: full of ideas about public buildings, roads, streets, industries, and
34:53
Speaker 1: the Great Dam which was to furnish electricity for the state.
34:57
Speaker 1: He was the first person in India who inquired after
35:01
Speaker 1: Catherine Mayo. I had been expecting to meet Antagonism because
35:06
Speaker 1: of Mother India, which I myself now considered misleading. Certainly,
35:12
Speaker 1: the conditions when I was there seemed vastly different from
35:16
Speaker 1: those she had depicted only a few years earlier. The
35:21
Speaker 1: British believed every word true, but most of the Indians
35:26
Speaker 1: I saw looked upon Miss Mayo as having gone into
35:30
Speaker 1: their homes and then betrayed their confidences. They claimed she
35:35
Speaker 1: was definitely prejudiced, and like the clever craftsman she was,
35:40
Speaker 1: had fixed her statistics. For example, when she discussed the
35:45
Speaker 1: age of marriage, she made sweeping statements and quoted on
35:50
Speaker 1: page so and so of such and such a report.
35:53
Speaker 1: You turned there and they were correct, and that was
35:58
Speaker 1: the reason for the astounding acceptance of her book. Nevertheless,
36:03
Speaker 1: she had violated the spirit because two pages further in
36:07
Speaker 1: the same report followed an explanation of or exception to
36:13
Speaker 1: her conclusions. Mirza ismael A Mohammadan thought she had benefited
36:20
Speaker 1: Indians by shaking them awake, and that the fact she
36:24
Speaker 1: had brought out, even if not true, of all the country,
36:28
Speaker 1: should be corrected. That India had to defend herself was
36:33
Speaker 1: good for her. After visiting Hyderabad, which was pleasant and social,
36:40
Speaker 1: and after seeing the startling landscape in which the mountains
36:44
Speaker 1: seemed to have been smashed by a giant mall into
36:47
Speaker 1: enormous pieces, I started towards home. India was a land
36:53
Speaker 1: of dramatic contrasts. The highest mountains, the hottest plains, the
37:00
Speaker 1: densest jungles, the most violent reigns. The loveliest architecture in
37:06
Speaker 1: the world was set against a background of nauseating squalor.
37:12
Speaker 1: Wealth beyond calculation existed alongside poverty that was living, death,
37:19
Speaker 1: dazzling mental attainments beside an ignorance, utterly abysmal. I could
37:25
Speaker 1: not tell precisely what the results of the trip had been.
37:30
Speaker 1: These rarely came immediately, and if you had to hammer
37:34
Speaker 1: away and hammer away for years in the United States,
37:38
Speaker 1: you had to do it ten times over in India.
37:43
Speaker 1: A terrific change in temperature froze me at Hong Kong.
37:48
Speaker 1: The poor huddled around little fires in the streets. Doctor
37:53
Speaker 1: Arthur Wu, a Rockefeller Foundation protege, enthusiastic, full of energy
38:00
Speaker 1: like magic, procured quarters for me in one of the
38:03
Speaker 1: crowded hotels on the top floor. Quiet and RESTful, but
38:08
Speaker 1: oh how cold. According to my schedule, I was to
38:14
Speaker 1: remain twenty four hours, into which were to be crammed
38:18
Speaker 1: a lunch, a tea, a lecture, a Chinese supper, and
38:23
Speaker 1: a public meeting. Then I decided to stay over a
38:27
Speaker 1: day for a medical gathering. Ho Kum Tong, a wealthy Chinese,
38:33
Speaker 1: provided another luncheon in his beautiful home in Hong Kong,
38:39
Speaker 1: I heard rumors of a practical scholar in eugenics, in
38:43
Speaker 1: which the Chinese were very much interested. He was said
38:48
Speaker 1: to have, in addition to a wife, thirty concubines, by
38:53
Speaker 1: each of whom he had had three children. One of
38:57
Speaker 1: the Negro offspring, tall, kinky haired, an oblique eyed, was
39:03
Speaker 1: a most extraordinary looking youth. He did not appear to
39:07
Speaker 1: belong anywhere. The daughters were much larger of stature than
39:13
Speaker 1: the average Chinese. All were educated and doing excellent work.
39:19
Speaker 1: Not only the features of the cultured types on the island,
39:23
Speaker 1: but even those of the coolies. The longshoremen struck me
39:28
Speaker 1: as growing less Oriental and more Anglo saxon, the foreheads fuller,
39:34
Speaker 1: the eyes less slanting. When I reached Japan, I found
39:39
Speaker 1: that westernization had leaped ahead. Tokyo was not the same
39:45
Speaker 1: city I had seen in nineteen twenty two. Automobiles and
39:50
Speaker 1: wide paved streets, many bicycles, many men in small children
39:55
Speaker 1: in European dress. Everywhere also was an atm sphere of
40:00
Speaker 1: tenseness on account of the assassination of the cabinet members
40:05
Speaker 1: about ten days before telephone communication in English was forbidden.
40:12
Speaker 1: People in Yokohama were enabled to get to Tokyo because
40:16
Speaker 1: all transportation was cut off. War seemed inevitable. Baroness Ishimoto
40:24
Speaker 1: told me the activities of her organization had been curtailed,
40:29
Speaker 1: but articles and discussion and the spreading of knowledge had continued.
40:34
Speaker 1: The dissemination now was as it had been in France,
40:39
Speaker 1: from house to house, family to family, by word of
40:43
Speaker 1: mouth instead of under proper auspices. At the end of
40:49
Speaker 1: a dismal voyage to Honolulu, I had hardly registered at
40:53
Speaker 1: the hotel when I heard a feminine voice in my ear.
40:58
Speaker 1: Are you Missus Sanger? Yes, Doctor Muriel cass As. This
41:04
Speaker 1: welcoming committee turned out to be knew that I was
41:08
Speaker 1: recently out of a hospital, and disappeared for a few
41:11
Speaker 1: moments to telephone for a doctor. When he arrived, she said,
41:17
Speaker 1: all we want of you is to give Missus Sanger
41:20
Speaker 1: something to keep her going. She's got eight lectures to deliver.
41:26
Speaker 1: I felt like a poor old war horse being fed
41:30
Speaker 1: the last measure of oats. I had a horrible memory
41:34
Speaker 1: of two weeks of fog and rain and cold at
41:38
Speaker 1: Memorial Hospital in Hong Kong, and now here I was
41:43
Speaker 1: to die in Honolulu. But doctor Cass, an efficient, self
41:49
Speaker 1: sacrificing manager, did the most amazing things for me. She
41:54
Speaker 1: ordered the telephone operator to switch every call to her.
41:59
Speaker 1: There I was quite alone. Nobody could see me or
42:03
Speaker 1: even talk to me. I must conserve my strength for
42:07
Speaker 1: the meetings. Repeatedly, she rushed me to and from halls,
42:12
Speaker 1: put me in cars, and trundled me off to bed. Really,
42:17
Speaker 1: I was better after each lecture than I had been before.
42:22
Speaker 1: When I left Honolulu, she herself was so worn out
42:26
Speaker 1: she had to take a vacation, but I was nearly well.
42:31
Speaker 1: The hospitality and luxuriance of this Pacific paradise were almost indescribable.
42:38
Speaker 1: Hula hulas at the hotels, bathing on the beaches, outriggers
42:44
Speaker 1: swooping in, the Native women in great flowered mother hubbards,
42:49
Speaker 1: twining lays, the songs they sang, the air of leisure
42:54
Speaker 1: and fun and play. These made Honolulu a city apart.
43:00
Speaker 1: It was the sounding board of the orient people going,
43:04
Speaker 1: people coming back, but all there to enjoy themselves. In Honolulu,
43:10
Speaker 1: I repacked, and to save space, stuffed Grant's tiger skin
43:15
Speaker 1: in the trunk around my box of darjealing tea. When
43:19
Speaker 1: four weeks later I ripped off the cover at Willow Lake,
43:24
Speaker 1: it was reeking with camphor. I tried to erate the leaves,
43:29
Speaker 1: dry them out, fumigate them with sunshine, but it remained
43:33
Speaker 1: mothball tea. One package I had given away before I
43:38
Speaker 1: discovered the tragedy. Its receipt was ignored, no thank you letter,
43:44
Speaker 1: no mention of it. The other friend to whom I
43:47
Speaker 1: had planned to present this choice gift had to go without.
43:52
Speaker 1: I spent the summer at Willow Lake, and in the winter,
43:56
Speaker 1: remembering Arizona from the time I had been there with Stuart,
44:00
Speaker 1: went out again in response to the summons of the desert.
44:05
Speaker 1: My husband and I found a house near Tucson of Adobe,
44:09
Speaker 1: trimmed in blue. The mountains, not distant or aloof or
44:15
Speaker 1: towering over all reached into the sky, but they were
44:19
Speaker 1: also somehow intimate, cupping the town gently on all four sides.
44:26
Speaker 1: You settled there in the Catalina foothills and felt such
44:30
Speaker 1: a part of the whole. The first thing, when you
44:33
Speaker 1: opened your eyes before actual dawn, you beheld the gold
44:39
Speaker 1: and purple, and then the entire sky break into color.
44:44
Speaker 1: In the evening the sunsets were reflected on the mountains
44:47
Speaker 1: in pink lavender shades. Sometimes the glow sprayed from the
44:52
Speaker 1: bottom upward, like the footlights of a theater, until the
44:56
Speaker 1: tips were aflame. Sunset vanish as quickly as sunrise, never
45:02
Speaker 1: lingering long. When the marvel of spring came to the desert,
45:07
Speaker 1: you saw the cactus and the flowering, saw the brown
45:11
Speaker 1: floor change to delicate pale yellow, stood in awe of nature,
45:17
Speaker 1: daring to live without water. You were reminded of the
45:21
Speaker 1: futility of wearing out your life merely providing food and raiment,
45:28
Speaker 1: like the challenge of death which so many of the
45:31
Speaker 1: people there were gallantly facing. The desert itself was a
45:35
Speaker 1: challenge and of Chapter thirty eight