Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1914 — REYNOLDS & DONEGAN WRITE FROM BOMBAY [ARTICLE]

REYNOLDS & DONEGAN WRITE FROM BOMBAY

Queer Disposal of the Bodies of the Dead—Delightful Trip Around the World. After an 8-day trip across the Indian Ocean from Perth, Australia, we arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, one of the most beautiful isles in the world. Here at Colombo we struck the read native life of the Buddha, tribes called the Singlase. They are getting pretty well educated and are prospering, many of them being very wealthy. We opened the new Tower Theatre in this city and gave the first big time variety show ever in Colombo. We played two weeks to packed houses and then left for Calcutta via rail, going over the pew Ceylon government railroad, which took us to the extreme north part of the isle through the jungles and plain's, where wild buffalo, elephants afid other wild game, are plentiful. We crossed over the small 18-mile channel which separates India from Ceylon and took the train for Calcutta. We were three days and four nights on the |rip. We passed through Madura, where the great Hindu temple with its real gold domes is. Stopped a day at Madras, where we found a city of nearly a million, and then on to Calcutta, where we played two weeks in one of the finest theatres one can possibly calst their eyes on, “The Empire Calcutta.” Here we were greeted with a theatre holding 2,000, packed front top to bottom with an audience all in full dress. During the day-time in Calcutta, we did nothing else but sight-see. Calcutta is one of the largest cities in the world. It has about 30,000 European population and has some pretty streets, buildings, etc. We crossed the great Howrah pontoon bridge, over which passes 100,000 people daily. We saw the burning ghnats and actually saw the dead burned up. The Hindus believe in burning their dead and their method is to take the body and take a ton of wood and place it necr the top Of the. pile, tie the feet and hands together and then the nearest relative sets the flame going. It’s a long story of theft many styles. Each caste has some different way of funeral 1 . Altogether there are 72 different languages spoken in India and hundreds of castes. It is a known fact that the Hindu language is spoken by more than any other language in the world, by more than 350,000,000. After two splendid weeks in Calcutta we caine direct across the India empire by rail, passing through the center of the famous Forest Jungle and -Deccan, which is alive -with wild animals of all descriptions. Tigers are more than plentiful, while other species of the cat family are in the jungles by thousands. We spent two days and a half on the rail trip, 1,300 miles, Calcutta to Bombay, and of all the towns we most enjoyed it was Bombay. It has as flue buildings as any place and its Victoria railroad terminals, built in 1888, has, any building in the U. 8. beaten, even up to the time of the New York Pennsylvania depot, and on the outside it is far more beautiful

Hotel Taj Mahal, where we stopped, has anything beat for outside beauty in any country, and it has many other buildings of large size that stand out as some of the landmarks of beautiful architecture. Bombay is a beautiful city, situated on a small isle or peninsula, and its surroundings are most picturesque During our stay in India we had but very few. really hot days and at no time have we seen it as hot as we have It in Rensselaer. Some summer days the evenings are cool and delightful.' The majority of the Europeans that have business out here are well fixed and of the most congenial class. We were entertained royally in all the cities we played, both in Australia as weH as India. Wo were the first variety headline act to head the first rtiow that has started India out as a Big Time Variety circuit, and our success has been the most pleasing to us of all our other travels and engagements. We leave Saturday for Aden, the Arabian city at the foot of the Red Bea, the entrance from the Arabian Sea into the Bed Sea, and will go direct to Jerusalem, where we will spend fully two weeks, dividing a few days up with Egypt and then via Brindisi, Italy, to Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, Alps, Switzerland, Paris and London. We have been working quite hard and. have made up our mind to see the sights of the ancient world before we come home. We have our expenses paid to London and can get stop-offs enroute. We have a large collection of photos of the many interesting sights we have visited, and taken ourselves. Oh, yes, I must not forget to tell you about Bombay's Tower of Silence which we visited. The Paraieees are a class of people which use -this method of doing away with the dead. They think that when life leaves the body the soul leaves it,

and that the body is no further use. They have five large towers on Malaber Hill, overlooking Bombay, and iri these towers there are stone shaped sort of coffins sunk into stone, all in a circle. The outside now is for the men, the middle for the women and the inside for the children. In the center is a large well. During the funeral the people all go to the house of prayer, inside the grounds, which are very beautiful, and the body is carried by two carriers who never leavs the place, into the tower (the top of the tower is open to. the sun) and the carriers no more than lay the body down in one of the cradles or coffins In the stone than hundreds of vultures come flying over the tower and within an hour or less time the vultures strip the body of all the flesh and the bones are left to dry. After a lew days in the sun they are dropped into the big well, which has a drainage through three charcoal filters to the sea. This is the most peculiar style of disposing of the dead I have seen. We leave here tomorrow for Palestine and Egypt, where we will spend two weeks, leaving Bombay on the Steamer Salsette. We cross the Arabian Sea to Aden, which takes four days, and then enter the Red Sea. After four days on the Red Sea we arrive at Suez, then enter the Suez Canal, which takes from 10 to 18 hours to go through; arrive at Port Said; take the evening boat over to Raifa. After two weeks In Palestine, then back to Port Said, Cairo and then over to Italy, where we will see Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Alps, Lake of Como and on to Paris and london. We are going to take our tone and enjoy a good rest of a month on these trips, as we get our fares paid first class from Australia, in fact, around the world. We can get stop-overs very nicely on our tickets, so we are not going to miss the chance. We are both well and enjoying our “Round the world trip fine” With best regards to all, \ . Yours, EARLE REYNOLDS. Reynolds & Donegan.