Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — A Holy Fair at Allahabad. [ARTICLE]

A Holy Fair at Allahabad.

At Allahabad, in the northwest provinces of India, a religious fair is held periodically on the dry part of the bed of the Ganges, to which natives of all castes and from all parts of India travel in order, by bathing in the sacred river, to obtain release from sins or to cure disease. Thousands upon thousands of Hindus make this long and weary pilgrimage, and during the height of this gathering the city teems with natives of all conditions. Some make a vow to measure the whole journey of their pilgrimage, hundreds of miles, perhaps, by the length of their bodies. This they effect by lying flat on the ground, making a mark where their head comes, rising and toeing this mark, and then lying down again, and so on until they arrive at their destination.

Others carry weights, others gall their flesh with chains. Indeed, the means adopted for self-mortification are countless. The bathing Is conducted on remarkable lines. The sacred river Itself is by no means inviting. Within a few yards of the devotees who are drinking of the holy stream or bathing in it, vultures may be seen preying on human corpses that float down. Yet this very water is taken away by men in various vessels suspended from long poles decortoed with tiny flags, and sold far away up country at many annas, and even rupees, for a single drop, so deep and strong is the Hindu’s faith in the water of the sacred river.

Aconcagua, the highest peak on the Western hemisphere, is to be attempted again this fall by Mr. E. A. Fitzgerald, who explored the New Zealand Alps. If he succeeds in getting to the top, which is 23,200 feet above sea level, he will beat the highest moufttain-climb-ing record, Sir W. M. Conway’s 22,600 feet ascent of Pioneer Peak in the Himalayas. Dr. Gussfcldt has tried Aconcagua, but got into trouble with his guides and had to turn back two thousand feet from the summit. Mr. Fitzgerald will have in his party the Swiss guide Zurbriggen, who accompanied him in New Zealand and was with Conway in the Himalayas. Elizabeth, in her old age, had a red nose and was very much ashamed of it One of her maids of honor has left a very curious account of the scrupulous core with which the queen’s nose was painted and powdered before any public appearance. Nero was near-sighted. He had a transparent gens which enabled him to watch the sports of the gladiators. It was believed to have a magic property, but is now supposed to have been an accidental lens.