Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1895 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

’ : AS OTHERS SEE US. The United States is a very great eduntry. We as a people imagine that our progress and civilization are about as near perfection as can be attained by mortal men. We, in Dur own estimation, have a few faults—but not many. ' Our resources, our government, our vast domain, our scenery, our people, our great men, our beautiful women, our millionaires —to say nothing of Chicago and “Jim” Corbett—are con»tantly being “pointed to with pride” as quite unequalled on the footstool. We are supremely satis--sed with ourselves, and are determined that the world shall’know it. We ate possibly a little off on some things, but we don’t care to be told of it —as is the way with conceited people. It is.not the province of this article to detract from the greatness of the American character or belittle our national characteristics, but while admitting our Superiority in most respects it is

well to listen to criticism, even if fcdverse, when made by a foreigner of education and wealth, and it is especially fitting to give heed to the words of a foreign ruler who sees our institutions for the first time. The Nawab Imad Nawaz Jung Bahadur, of India, (may his name decrease) is now traveling in the United States with a view to writing in his own language impressions of the great New World. He is a high-caste Indian, with a pleasing and interesting face, a polite smile and a wav of punctuating his remarks with the statement that such is his opinion. “When I landed in San Francisco,” he said to a New York World reporter at the Waldorf Hotel, “I was surrounded with reporters, who asked me simultaneously so many questions which I could not answer at once, that they described my clothes and appearance at great length and with evident enjoyment. I was also made to say many singular things which I had never even thought of, and the custom has continued in the various cities I have visited. “The question of wages is a most

serious-one with you. In my country J $1.50 is very good pay for a month's j work, and the laborer is well pleased and contented. In your couptryj however, you pay $2 per day— s6o a month—and sometimes more. Youil workers are discontented. ThS wages are so high that the Wig people grow"poor and the poor rich, and everybody in unhappy. This is not right. «; ■ * “Your government is in a fright-* fill financial condition. With no large army to draw on it? funds, it spends more money than it gets. You give most of your monev in pensions. This is not right. Other) nations spend one-third of thei'c money on their armies. Why is| this? I don’t like the pension sys-j tern.. In case of war, which is al- j ways liable, where would you j your money? You would* have to terribly tax the people. They might I not stand it, and then where would' your Government be? Your financial system is bad. “pother instance of bad financa is the selling of all Government land without distinction as to its value ip productiveness. Then your Government officials are poorly paid, with the result that good, smart men

avoid office and prefer business. They cannot on poor pay receive th* proper respect due them. “The chief things here are the railroads and mining. The railroads are splendid, but they make you a trades people, with the result that the cities grow and the villages an<} country are deserted. “There is one thing most Americans don't foresee, and that is that San Francisco is bound to be the first and largest city in America. Tha trade on your eastern shore has developed. It has but begun in tha West, which will trade with Japan, China and India. The Japanese victory means much to the western coast. It means a new order of things and the beginning of a commerce that will astonish the world." The Nawab comes from Southern India and is not accustomed to snow. At Niagara FalU he tried to walk on the snow and ice while wearing for the first time a pair of American heeled shoes. ~He did not get fat before he fell and so badly injured his head that he may not be able ta get to Washington before sailing on the Majestic, April 20. He feels that he must see the capital befor® writing his impressions of America, aud was hopeful that he would recover in tim n to do so. The Nawab is accompanied by his wife, who is described as a very beautiful woman.

THE NAWAB NAWAZ JUNG BAHADUR. (Who thinks our financial systems are bad, and who will write about us.)

THE WIFE OF THE NAWAB.