Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/636

Rh other. We shall see many an unseemly fracas between the servants of the Society and scientic gentlemen who insist on the right of entering the rooms with their hats on,—a practice which is more unseemly because more conspicuous than the practice of wearing shoes.'

"The facts of the case, we believe, are these:—About three or four months ago, one day Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, accompanied by a native friend from the North-west, went to the Indian Museum located in the Asiatic Society's building and was asked by the porters to leave his shoes at the portico, or rather to take off his shoes and keep them in his own hand if he wanted to go in. To this he did not of course consent, returned home, wrote a letter to the trustees of the museum enquiring as to whether they have passed any rule of the kind and observing if such a rule has been passed it would deter respectable native gentlemen, who wore shoes of the native pattern, from visiting the institution. He also wrote to the Council of the Asiatic Society that if the museum authorities enforced such a rule it would discourage respectable Pundits who like him wore native shoes from visiting Society's library—in as much as both the institutions were located in the same building. The museum authorities replied that they had not passed any such rule on the subject, but did not say whether they would pass any order for the discontinuance of the practice.