Dear Mamma,
Since I wrote last I have received two letters from you both from Naples dated
Feb 9th and Feb 23rd. Your last arrived in plenty of time
to wish me good luck on my 30th birthday and as I have a spare
afternoon I am taking the opportunity of answering it.
I have been away again to Calcutta as on the 23rd of last month I took a patient down to Calcutta and left him in the Grand Hospital but I came away on the the 26th as I had no wish to stay there longer than I could help. I got my teeth set in order for the rains - that was one good piece of business done. Calcutta was very full and very hot, crowds of globe trotters in the place and I had to put up in what they call the Dormitory at the Gt Eastern a room with about 10 beds in it as the other rooms were full. The weather is beginning to get very hot now and I suppose will go on like this till the end of May. I have had an awful low of work lately, but I am glad to say that I am feeling very fit and well and the long rides and exercise are agreeing with me.
You are quite right about the life being fairly rough, indeed the district I should think is worse than any in Assam Cachar or Sylhet as the rivers are something awful. In most districts they have fairly decent roads and I know that in Assam all the doctors are able to drive about - a trap would be quite useless to me except in the cold weather to drive down to the club and back in.
One more planter brought his bride up last week, this is the second marriage this cold weather. I shall have 6 ladies and their children to look after now, and I expect some of them will be nice trouble in the rains.
26th
I got this far and was interrupted by visitors, since then I have been careering
all over the district and have not found time to go on.
It still keeps very hot and I hear is suffocating down in Calcutta, a good many fellows have gone away for a week or two to get a blow at sea before the rains. The manager here left two days ago so I am all alone in my glory, which makes the evenings rather dull when I happen to be in.
I have been made Lieutenant of the Volunteers, much against my will. When I came up from Colombo General Lance who is commander in chief in Bengal came up with us, he takes a great interest in the Volunteers and inspects us once a year. He told the Captain of our troop that he thought I ought to take it. I had already refused the honour but after that when I was asked a second time to take it I could not very well refuse.
The Corps is in a rotten state, men will not take enough interest in it, in fact
it is very hard to get them to take an interest in anything here, very few really
care for games and often I have the greatest difficulty in getting them to turn
out on club days. I wish we could make games compulsory as we had at school, it
would do a lot of good and save a great many "lives"!
I am so sorry to hear about Frank, the climate out here does not seem to have
suited him at all although he was in a very nice station. I suppose his old
complaint had something to do with it. I think you will like your shawl when you
see it. I had a letter from Aunt Clara last mail and she seems very pleased with
hers. Poor Fran I hope he will not lose his sight altogether. I hope you will be
able to give better accounts of him next time you write.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story.
Dear Mamma,
Since I wrote last I have had two letters, one from Charlie dated March
27th and one from you dated April 13th.
I think the weather has pretty well broken now, last month was very hot but we are now having the "chota busate" or little rains, a sort of preliminary ???? before the big rains begin next month. The streams will soon be full of water and the roads a mass of slush. I am glad to say Government have made an effort to do up our main road this year and if the rains are not too heavy it may stand. I for one devoutly hope it will, it has gone regularly every year I have been here so this will be a record if it holds.
A few days before the rain started we had a pretty smart earthquake which lasted several minutes, this is a double storied bungalow and I was sitting upstairs, the whole building swayed from side to side creaking and groaning and the iron roof cracked like a lot of little shots, I felt very uncomfortable I can tell you. I believe the old wooden bungalows are far safer in an earthquake, all the same I have never heard of any building coming down in this neighbourhood.
I met an old chap of the name of Irving the other day and found out quite accidentally that his daughter married George Bush. The old chap had been in silk and now recruits coolies for tea Gardens. He goes in for collecting orchids, stamps, butterflies etc. I believe he makes a good thing out of it, he showed me one stamp worth R300. He had also been in the gold diggings in Australia and showed me a nugget he got there worth about £10 - £15. By the way I believe the gold mine I told you of in me last letter is going to turn out well, they have come on a rich vein of quartz and one piece which showed no visible gold was treated by a specialist and yielded 5oz of gold to the ton. This is exceedingly good - the richest mine in the world only yields 7oz to the ton.
I am afraid my letters are very dull. There is really no news to give you at present. The chief topics of conversation here are the price of tea and the falling rupee. The latter is worth a little over 1/- at present and people say it will go down to -/10d. I am afraid it will mean perpetual banishment. I don't see how one is to get home if it goes as low as that. Government officials are of course all right as they get a fixed value on exchange.
I see they have put up income tax at home. I have got off so far I am glad to say, we had a Baboo Collector round a short time ago but he did not find me out so I am safe for another year. It was a surprise to me to hear of Frank's engagement, please give him my hearty congratulations when you next write to him. I am awfully glad to hear that he has got over his illness and I hope he will stand this climate better now, it will be a pity though if he has to come out now as he will come in for all the hot weather. I must try and take a run up to see him next cold weather if I can find the time.
I am glad to say that I have been keeping very good health myself. I have had no fever since last year.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story.
Dear Mamma,
Since I wrote last I have had two letters dated June 1th and June
13th.
We are well into the rains now but so far I am glad to say that we have come off fairly well, there have been no heavy floods so I have not had much difficulty in getting about. Each year I have been out we have had a flood in the 1st week in July but this year there was none. The next usually comes about the second week in August so we may consider ourselves safe till then. I only hope it goes on like this and then there is some chance of the main road holding out this season.
Things are jogging along in the same old routine, everyone very busy making tea and my work is going as usual. I have had a great deal of sickness amongst coolies and the Europeans have been laid up a good deal too but not so much as in the next district. As for myself I had a go of fever which lasted a couple of days at the end of last month but on the whole I am keeping better than I have done before and feel more fit for work. I have given up drinking bier altogether I find my liver will not stand it and have a ??? or a little light wine at meals which suits me much better.
We are getting lots of fruit just now, mangoes, pine apples, lychees and passion fruit and of course plantains. It is hard to say which is best but I suppose the mango is. It is is quite impossible to eat one tidily and enjoy it, when you come to the stone you require to gnaw it to get all the pulp away properly. Indian corn is another things that requires to be gnawed to enjoy it properly, I believe in civilised parts they scrape the grains out but of course in the wilds we eat the things as they were meant to be eaten with our fingers.
I don't know that when everything is said that the fruits out here beat those at home especially pears, peaches and nectarines. Some fellows have tried growing English fruits here but they have not been a success. We have several peach trees in the compound here, the fruit forms but as soon as the rains start they all rot and drop off. The rainfall is too heavy for them. One man tried coffee in this district but it was an utter failure for the same reason.
I think I told you that I had been made Lieutenant in the Volunteers in one of my letters. I have to get a sword of course. I don't know whether you have poor old Ted's Militia one or not. If it is at home would you mind my having it as it would save my buying another. I am reading up my drill at odd minutes as I shall have to drill our squad here next cold weather, now that I have taken the thing up I want to try and improve matters a little if I can.
I told you in my last that I did not want anything in the way of clothes but I shall have one or two "wants" next cold weather and as it takes some time to get things I will tell you now. I should like another pair of long boots and a pair of small ones, the long boots "Elcho's" the same as you sent before only if possible of stronger leather. The small boots of brown leather. I find it absolutely impossible to get a decent boot in Calcutta, everyone here grumbles of the same thing. The small boots I got from Goodenough before I came out, they were an excellent fit and have lasted well, the only thing is they might line them with leather. I am not sure whether Goodenough have my measure or not. Also if you would not mind getting a pair of riding breeches from Haldane and Pugh, of cord strapped with buckskin at the knees, the thicker the cord the better.
It will be awfully good of you if you will send these things out by October if possible. I wish I could afford to get them myself but it is hardly good enough with the rupee at its present value.
I am sorry to hear Evie is not doing well, remember that if he gives up his farm and wants work I might get him something to do here but he would find it very different I am afraid and the climate bad. I hope Robert will come out in the cold weather, he would get some good shooting and I am sure he would enjoy himself.
I suppose this letter will find you at home again. I am afraid the journey would be rather trying and the climate not very pleasant after the "sunny south".
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story.
Dear Mamma,
I got your letter of July 14th the first week in this month, as you
say I was rather surprised, I quite expected you would be home but I am quite sure
you enjoyed seeing all the sights.
This is a very sad year altogether here. I have just lost another of my patients quite suddenly. I was away from here for 3 or 4 days visiting some of my Gardens a long distance off and the first thing I heard was the death of this poor fellow and it was just possible that had I been on the spot I might have saved his life but the assistant on the Garden is quite a youngster and did not recognise how serious matters were so they did not send for me till the man was at the point of death. I have been very busy and have had some very bad rides. One day I left one Garden at 8 am and did not get in here until 4 pm riding a long way on an elephant. I had nothing to eat or drink the whole time and was alternately grilled by the sun and soaked to the skin. I should have been able to get something to refresh the inner man at a half way bungalow but the Manager was away and the whole place shut up so I had to go on. There had been no cholera to speak of this year but every other disease pretty well seems to be on the war path. Even the cattle have not been spared, foot and mouth disease has been raging for the last few weeks and the smell of dead carcasses along the roads and riding through the jungle is something awful. The natives will not take precautionary measures all they say is that a devil has got in amongst their cattle and only a small minority have been wise enough to send their sound animals away to the Bhutan Hills at once. We have had our milk supple cut very short in consequence and for two or three days had to use Swiss milk which we luckily had a little of.
As for myself you will be glad to hear I am keeping very fairly well. I had a day of low fever the day before yesterday but have had no fever since. These 3 months August, September and October are always my worst but I hope to get through then this year with less fever than I have had before.
I am afraid you will think this letter is a perfect catectony of woes. I am not done yet, we have been having a lot of trouble with our servants. I had to send mine away and have been more than a week without one and all the others in the bungalow have had to go too except one, so that we have been living rather a hand to mouth existence for some time.
Aug 19th
To continue I have been into Jalpaiguri since I started this - our cook ran
Thomson in for hitting him and I had to go in as witness, luckily the business
was settled out of court and I got away the next day, the rascal thoroughly
deserved the licking he got. When the case came on he got frightened and agreed
to take his pay and clear out. It is always a serious business when a European is
run in by a Native for assault as you never know what false evidence they will
put in. The journey in and out of Jalpi this weather is anything but pleasant and
I did not bless the man for making me go in. I have been writing to the Deputy
Commissioner about the state of the roads here to try and get them repaired. I
had a nasty spill last week owing to the bad state one of them was in. Very few
of the planters will bother themselves to do anything so I am going to see what I
can do myself.
I had a letter from Lou last mail, she seems to think I ought to be getting a holiday soon and coming home. I am afraid I cannot manage it till the year after next if then and even so I expect I should have a deal of difficulty in getting a man to come here for the rains as he would be pretty certain to get s???
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story.
Dear Mamma,
Your letter of Aug 10th arrived last mail.
We have been having very wet weather since I wrote last. As a general rule we get most of our rainfall at night and fairly fine days but it has been just the opposite lately and I have had some terrible duckings in my rides. Yesterday I had a 20 mile ride home in a perfect deluge, even my mackintosh would not keep it out, I had absolutely not a dry rag on me when I arrived at the bungalow. I see they are having floods at Agna so I suppose Frank will be having a benefit too.
I am still without a servant, it may be economical in a way but it lets my clothes all go to pieces. I want the planters to give me a bungalow of my own and am starting to agitate about it. It is of course less expensive living with another man, but it is difficult sometimes to avoid having rows. Thompson the man I live with here is a good chap in his way, hard working and so on but he is one of these rough Scotchmen, not a gentleman at all and has a fearful temper. We have always got on very well but he rubs one up the wrong way fearfully at times and lately it has been a little more than I can stand. There are other reasons also why I think I should have a bungalow, the chief being that if a fellow is rather s???? and lives a long way off I could have him up to stay with me and here it is not very comfortable doing that.
Whether I shall get the house or not I cannot say, I think all the fellows agree that I ought to have one but there are so many petty jealousies and so on between the different Gardens that I dare say the whole thing will fall through. If all the Gardens belonged to one company the thing could be done easily enough but when there are so many different interests the difficulties begin.
Sep 6th
Since I started this letter I have had a letter from Dr Weatherly at Keenseong
asking me if I would go up there and join him in his practice there. Keenseong is
in the Hills about half way up to Darjeeling. Weatherly is a brother of Lionel
Weatherly, the man who writes the songs, he is opening a small sanatorium and
wants a man chiefly to take charge of that. He does not want anyone till '97. I
have never met the man but have letters from him occasionally about fellows I
have sent away.
I am going up to see him about it as soon as the cold weather sets in and I have more time to myself. If I do not take it up he wants me to get him a man to do so and this would suit me very well as I might get a man to come and do my work for me here in '96 and I would go home and the next year he could go to Keenseong. I do not know that I should care to give up this practice now unless it was a fairly good thing at Keenseong. Had I had the offer of it two years ago it might have been different.
I see the Medical Faculty have been having a great time of it at Bristol, we are going to have a Congress in Calcutta during Xmas week, the first that has ever been held in India. I wish that they had not put it that week, as one likes to have a little holiday then. Very many thanks for sending out the breeches etc. they will be most acceptable when they arrive. I am sorry the London boots are so expensive, I like Goodenough's just as well and they are very comfortable.
You ask me if I have been able to put away any savings - well I have not done quite as well in that way as I had hoped. I have at present R3000 on deposit with King Hamilton and I hope to have another R1000 saved by the end of the year. Then I have R800 in debenture shares in the Gold mine + R350 in ordinary shares. The debenture shares were worth originally R100 and I bought them for R40 and the ordinary R1 and I got them for 5½ annas, so if there is anything in the mine I ought to make a little money out of it. Lately the reports are not good, but the engineer in charge is quite convinced that it is a good thing.
I sent a few pound home to King in London the first year I was out and I keep this to pay my Club and Newspapers but I have not sent any since as the rupee has fallen terribly. I would far sooner send the money home as it is out of one's way there and there is no temptation to spend it.
Last year my trip to Ceylon cost me the best part of R1000, I did not try to economise over it as I wanted to get fit for work again as soon as possible, so I always went to the best hotels and ate and drank of the best I could get.
This year I did not think I will need to go away, I am feeling very fit at present and looking forward to next month which will start the cold weather and our cricket and polo club.
It is awfully good of you offering to pay my passage home but I think it is hardly fair, you gave me a first class education and started me fair and square out here so I did not want to give you any more trouble in the way of expenditure if I can help it. When I do get home I think the district should pay my fair one way.
I was very sorry to hear Evie had not been doing well but I hope his trip home will set him up again. Please tell Arnold if you see him that I got the pipes all right and am much obliged for them, also please tell him that he owes me a letter, he has not written for an age.
With love to all
I remain
Your affec son
A.N.J. Story.
Dear Mamma,
I received two letters from you last month but I forgot the dates and I am
writing this away from home.
The Poojah holidays are on at present, they are a Hindoo festival chiefly remarkable about here for everyone (natives I mean) being in a complete state of stupidity from drink for the best part of a week.
I came down to this place Banandanga yesterday to keep Rawson, the Accountant to the D.T. Co. company as he could not get away, we were to have gone up the river today and had a picnic but it rained hard during the night and so we had to give it up.
I told you in my last letter that I had had a letter from Weatherly the doctor at Keenseong asking me if I could go up there. One of my patients here got very s???? and I took him as far as Keenseong myself. It was very cold up there after the plains, the line up to Darjeeling from Silliguri is a wonderful piece of engineering. Keenseong is 5000 ft up and Darjeeling 7000 ft so you can imagine the line had to take a good many turns and twists to get there, in one place there is a complete figure of 8 and in two or three places they have to stop, then back up and then go on again; I do not think there is any railway of this kind in Europe. I believe on the Bombay side there is one and also in Australia.
I only stayed one night at Keenseong, the hotel was crammed and we had to go and stop in a house some way up the hill behind the hotel. The accommodation there was shockingly bad and so I made my patient go straight up to Darjeeling next day and I came down. On the way down there was a landslip so we had to wait while this was cleared off the line delaying us about 1½ hours. It is a wonderful thing that there had never been an accident on this line, landslips have come down time after time just before or just after the train has passed but never on top of the train. There is one place called "pugla jhora" - mad stream, when the water comes straight down the side [ REST MISSING ]