Page:The Land of the Veda.djvu/516

506 CHAPTER X. HE preceding facts and doctrines will lead to an appreciation of the efforts made by the mission to educate and train some of the youth of India, so that we could present before the heathen the examples of Christian manhood and womanhood, and also have native helpers of both sexes on whose intelligence we could more fully rely than we could upon our adult converts. Our Boys' Orphanage was originated by the suggestion and liberality of the devoted Englishman mentioned on page 436. We present a woodcut of the present building, close to the city of Shahjehanpore. In this institution one hundred and forty-eight boys are now receiving a good Christian education, under the direction of Dr. and Mrs. Johnson, whose devotion and ability, by God's blessing, have made that school the power for good which it is fast becoming.

The origin of this noble charity may be briefly given here, as it is one of the results of the Great Sepoy Rebellion, and intimately connected with the facts which have been stated.

The wages of a laboring man in India is two annas per day—the anna is three cents—so that millions of men in that land toil all day for six cents, and are grateful if they can only, even at that rate, obtain regular employment. This is their whole compensation, for they find themselves—as they would not, on account of their caste prejudices, touch our food—so the six cents have to pay rent, and clothe and feed them and their families! Of course, they could not live at all if their habits were not very simple, and the means of life very cheap. They eat only twice a day, rice and coarse flour, alternated, being their chief food, with a seasoning of curry; and they drink only water.

The result is, that these millions of toiling men are always on the very verge of want, living “from hand to mouth.”