Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/553

506 The people of Burdwan had already heard his name before, and some of them had known him on his previous visits. The poor and the needy gathered round him, and he gave away his alms to the supplicants without distinction of caste and creed. A good many Mussulmans are known to have been rescued by him from peril. During the period of his stay at Burdwan, he used at intervals to pay visits to Birsingha, and on those occasions, numerous poor and hungry children of the lower classes crowded about his palanquin. He gave alms to all of them; to some of them he presented sweatmeats; to some, pice and other coins; and to others he gave clothes. Whenever Vidyasagar's intended visit to a place was reported, people of different classes, male, female and children, crowded in the streets he was to pass through, to catch a glimpse of the face of the renowned, kind and benevolent Vidyasagar. In this connection, we will take the liberty to relate here an incident of his former life.

As Inspector of Schools he had once an occasion to go to a village in the interior of the Hugli district to visit the school of that place. The local people had already heard his name, and were eager to get a sight of the great man. From ten o'clock in the morning, the houses near the school building began to be filled in with women. Every door, every window was crowded to suffocation. Those females who were rather advanced in age