s
work, or who can be trusted to do it well except under supervision.
Even in a household it is rare to find a servant (except a few very
capable head-servants) who can be depended on to maintain a
satisfactory standard of work, unless he is frequently reminded
whenever he slackens off. In teaching lads a trade, the majority of
them need to be shown over and over again how to do a thing before
they grasp it. And even after skill has been acquired, it is not
until they have felt the inconvenience of being called upon to re-do
what has been done badly, that they realise that it is best to do it
well at first.

Hardly any transaction, great or small, is completed in heathen India
without something of the nature of a bribe taking place, and the
system is so almost universal that it seems as if it is likely to be a
long time before it is eradicated. Hardly anyone will do anything for
anybody without the stimulus of a reward of some sort. Many Indian
officials will not discharge even the ordinary duties of their office
without frequent "refreshers" from the people amongst whom they work.
It is naturally the poorest and weakest who suffer most from this form
of oppression.

On the railway there is almost unlimited scope for this. The doors on
to the platform of the waiting-rooms, or rather sheds, which are
provided for native passengers are generally only opened just as the
train comes in. The rush is often great, and the number of passengers
is constantly in excess of the vacant places in the train. The
official who unlocks the door leading on to the platform can easily
favour certain persons, and keep back others, with very little risk of
detection, and it is the traveller who has been most ready with his
"palm oil" who gets through the gate promptly, and so stands a good
chance of getting a seat in the train.

In selling tickets to third-class passengers there is vast scope for
cheating. They are mostly illiterate, and many of them inexperienced
in the ways of travel. A dishonest clerk can easily discriminate the
kind of passenger he is dealing with, and when he thinks it safe to do
so, can quote the price of the ticket as being something over and
above its real value, and then pocket the balance. The price printed
on the tickets is no guide to the majority of third-class Indian
travellers. In the course of a long day a dishonest ticket clerk, by
means of small irregularities, can add substantially to his income.
Detec