Mr. Isaacs | Page 2

man in the East who was neither a flatterer nor
freebooter, but who by his own masterly perseverance worked his way
to immense wealth, and to such power as wealth commands, though his

high view of the social aims of mankind deterred him from mixing in
political questions. Bon chien chasse de race is a proverb which applies
to horses, cattle, and men, as well as to dogs; and in this man, who was
a noble type of the Aryan race, the qualities which have made that race
dominant were developed in the highest degree. The sequel, indeed,
might lead the ethnographer into a labyrinth of conjecture, but the story
is too tempting a one for me to forego telling it, although the said
ethnographer should lose his wits in striving to solve the puzzle.
In September, 1879, I was at Simla in the lower Himalayas,--at the time
of the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari at Kabul,--being called there in
the interests of an Anglo-Indian newspaper, of which I was then editor.
In other countries, notably in Europe and in America, there are
hundreds of spots by the sea-shore, or on the mountain-side, where
specific ills may be cured by their corresponding antidotes of air or
water, or both. Following the aristocratic and holy example of the
Bishops of Salzburg for the last eight centuries, the sovereigns of the
Continent are told that the air and waters of Hofgastein are the only
nenuphar for the over-taxed brain in labour beneath a crown. The
self-indulgent sybarite is recommended to Ems, or Wiesbaden, or
Aix-la-Chapelle, and the quasi-incurable sensualist to Aix in Savoy, or
to Karlsbad in Bohemia. In our own magnificent land Bethesdas
abound, in every state, from the attractive waters of lotus-eating
Saratoga to the magnetic springs of Lansing, Michigan; from Virginia,
the carcanct of sources, the heaving, the warm, the hot sulphur springs,
the white sulphur, the alum, to the hot springs of Arkansas, the Ultima
Thule of our migratory and despairing humanity. But in India, whatever
the ailing, low fever, high fever, "brandy pawnee" fever, malaria caught
in the chase of tigers in the Terai, or dysentery imbibed on the banks of
the Ganges, there is only one cure, the "hills;" and chief of
"hill-stations" is Simla.
On the hip rather than on the shoulder of the aspiring Himalayas,
Simla--or Shumla, as the natives call it--presents during the wet
monsoon period a concourse of pilgrims more varied even than the
Bagnères de Bigorre in the south of France, where the gay Frenchman
asks permission of the lady with whom he is conversing to leave her

abruptly, in order to part with his remaining lung, the loss of the first
having brought him there. "Pardon, madame," said he, "je m'en vais
cracher mon autre poumon."
To Simla the whole supreme Government migrates for the
summer--Viceroy, council, clerks, printers, and hangers-on. Thither the
high official from the plains takes his wife, his daughters, and his liver.
There the journalists congregate to pick up the news that oozes through
the pent-house of Government secrecy, and failing such scant drops of
information, to manufacture as much as is necessary to fill the columns
of their dailies. On the slopes of "Jako"--the wooded eminence that
rises above the town--the enterprising German establishes his
concert-hall and his beer-garden; among the rhododendron trees
Madame Blavatzky, Colonel Olcott and Mr. Sinnett move mysteriously
in the performance of their wonders; and the wealthy tourist from
America, the botanist from Berlin, and the casual peer from Great
Britain, are not wanting to complete the motley crowd. There are no
roads in Simla proper where it is possible to drive, excepting one
narrow way, reserved when I was there, and probably still set apart, for
the exclusive delectation of the Viceroy. Every one rides--man, woman,
and child; and every variety of horseflesh may be seen in abundance,
from Lord Steepleton Kildare's thoroughbreds to the broad-sterned
equestrian vessel of Mr. Currie Ghyrkins, the Revenue Commissioner
of Mudnugger in Bengal. But I need not now dwell long on the
description of this highly-favoured spot, where Baron de Zach might
have added force to his demonstration of the attraction of mountains for
the pendulum. Having achieved my orientation and established my
servants and luggage in one of the reputed hotels, I began to look about
me, and, like an intelligent American observer, as I pride myself that I
am, I found considerable pleasure in studying out the character of such
of the changing crowd on the verandah and on the mall as caught my
attention.
At last the dinner-hour came. With the rest I filed into the large
dining-room and took my seat. The place allotted to me was the last at
one side of the long table, and the chair opposite was vacant,