nd a sprinkling of veritable hansom cabs. In the broughams
sit men in top-hats. In the other carts, young men, all very much alike,
and all immaculately turned out. A fresh stream from Chowringhi joins
the Park Street detachment, and the two together stream away across the
_maidan_ toward the business quarter of the city. This is Calcutta going
to office--the civilians to the Government Buildings and the young men
to their firms and their blocks and their wharves. Here one sees that
Calcutta has the best turn-out in the Empire. Horses and traps alike are
enviably perfect, and--mark the touchstone of civilization--_the lamps
are in their sockets!_ The country-bred is a rare beast here; his place
is taken by the Waler,[16] and the Waler, though a ruffian at heart, can
be made to look like a gentleman. It would be indecorous to applaud the
winking harness, the perfectly lacquered panels, and the liveried
_saises_. They show well in the outwardly fair roads shadowed by the
Palaces.

[16] Imported Australian horse.

How many sections of the complex society of the place do the carts
carry? _First_, the Bengal Civilian who goes to Writers' Buildings and
sits in a perfect office and speaks flippantly of "sending things to
India," meaning thereby referring matters to the Supreme Government. He
is a great person, and his mouth is full of promotion-and-appointment
"shop." Generally he is referred to as a "rising man." Calcutta seems
full of "rising men." _Secondly_, the Government of India man, who wears
a familiar Simla face, rents a flat when he is not up in the Hills, and
is rational on the subject of the drawbacks of Calcutta. _Thirdly_, the
man of the "firms," the pure non-official who fights under the banner of
one of the great houses of the City, or for his own hand in a neat
office, or dashes about Clive Street in a brougham doing "share work" or
something of the kind. He fears not "Bengal," nor regards he "India." He
swears impartially at both when their actions interfere with his
operations. His "shop" is quite unintelligible. He is like the English
city man with the chill off, lives well and entertains hospitably. In
the old days he was greater than he is now, but still he bulks large. He
is rational in so far that he will help the abuse of the Municipality,
but womanish in his insistence on the excellencies of Calcutta. Over and
above these who are hurrying to work are the various brigades, squads,
and detachments of