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13

r, in A merica, Seeks A id for Unm

Says His People Woo Truth "In Life, Not in Textbooks"

IWDl has born represented to the western mind a

land peopled by beggars, haunt o( age-old supei

...,. and the bitting dwelling plat ol dense and

,11-pervadinfi ignorance.

( have with us a beggar from India. K ihindrauath

!,. luiiiii-, who comes t plead in behalf of the

jw eri in his country for the boon of greater oppor

tuuitv t seek, in the highest dome of thought, Truth.

y he dors not conic as emissarj from a benighted

i He tomes to ask of the riches of the West

a s , ut part to enable him to spread further an

en meiit of knowledge to his people, who he be

lives are now the most cultured in tin- world.

is i new role for Tagore. this part of

t I he worlds honors haw been lm

the asking. Money sufficient for all his

I desires in this existence has Sowed entity

. t His eminence in literature has been est l

nd peradventure. Tin- award of the

y 1 C lias settled his place, even in the minds

0 m present generation of doubters irho

demai I ligiL

1 1 ! come, I wise man out ol the ancient

isle alms and an understanding intellect

wealthy West He desire s to create a

univei He seeks the material aid that mas-

Ifft icboUun may satisfy their physical needs.

whilc their minds range the Infinite for Truth

He hopes for the understanding that the West,

in its measure profit by the learning of

the El

r i. land of a thousand univrrities and a

hundn thousand schools, can give the famous

Indian scholar and poet the material he asks And

America probably will.

But whether America can give him the under

U r which he hopes may be a subject of

doubt.

American pride has always swelled at the

thought of American liberality in education. The

tine buildings of our college towns, the progressive

v of our modern educators, and the al

most universality of our common schools, have

istered to our feeling of calm assur

ance of premiership in opportunities for the spread

ol culture.

But to Kabindranath Tagore knowledge is a

thing apart fiom costly architecture, and cannot be

I tinned within the limits of textbooks. And gen

eral culture does not have its basis in accurate

memories of the Three R's.

It was like going to another world, the seeing

ol this Hindu poet In a narrow, prosaic hotel

room an interviewer was permitted to meet hun

and ask him regarding his ideal for a university.

It had been announced that he hoped to extend

the limits of his old boys' school, Shantiniketan.

"bde oi Peace," an institution he has main

tained for thirty years out of his own income.

tener to Tagore forgets the limits of

time and space and visualizes universities of

spheres.

Only in rare moments when he speaks of the

g veniment which imposes the universities

now in Ind i does a listener remember that Tagore is

one of a subject people, and that to him the gentle

rale of Britain is still the domination of an alien

race.

Clad in a flowing gray robe and facing as always,

the sun. T re is the embodiment of the eastern savant

to whom the western world has been introduced in

story and p ctry. His flowing gray beard and his face,

tanned i ft brown during the generations in which

Mi IAO faced the hot sun of his peninsula, and

his black es which glow with marvelous softness

' unmistakable piercing qualities, give an

interview - a sense of unreality.

Whei fort Itnaltl this impression grows. His

and soft, with an almost spirit-like quality,

lis lai c flows with rhythmic purity.

Under the ipefl oi bis words, it would be a hardened

materialist or hidebound creedsman indeed who would

pot IWS) tO the Btusk Of eastern thought H, , L.

beautiful and the depth of his thought is striking

bui somehow listener, eager to hear his reasoning

anq pai attention to his knowledge, finds himself

SUCCUmbing tO other influences.

1'erlu,,. it ls thc timbre ol Tagore's voice Perhaps

li the picture he makes. Perhaps it is the combina

tion Ol these with his philosophv.

Quotation of the Hindu scholar is attempted only

wm i preliminary apology because of of ea

Wif ' mm W

1 Rsk

(C) U. 4 U.

SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE

actitude of language by which alone his poetic thought

may be appreciated fully.

Mr. Tagore, he is a knight by the way, was asked to

make clear thc differences between the university he

plans and universities familiar to the American public,

'Some of your western universities," he said, 'have

followed to some extent the ideas we of the East pos

sess of universities. In Paris, and in Cambridge and

in Oxford there have been at different times teachings

similar to those in India."

Mr. Tagore then began to speak of university build

ings. Frequently he adverted to buildings

"The buildings in the western universities are fine,"

he said. "They are beautiful. To them come the

scholars from all over the land. And at them they

linger, and imbibe the knowledge contained within text

books, and taught to them by the masters. They are

birds in beautiful cages. They linger a few years;

then SOtneone Opens the cages and they fly away.

"To tne, a university is a perpetual thing. Then M

something dead, something dried, all cut and dried

about these umver sitae of the West. It is not d

vllabac. the eurrieula. nor the fine buildings that mak

a university. There is something more, something

growing, something living

In OUr universities in India, the master may pick his

scholars. The grammarian may select those who de

sire to study grammar. The teacher of philosophy may

choose tliMse who seek philosophy.

"And these scholars COUM and sit by his lioV

It may be in a humble nlace. The master's uifr

will cook the meals for his scholars, and tin mas

ter's home will be their dwelling place. There will

be no dollars nor cents connected with their earch

for Truth.

"The master will unfold his knowledge and

the scholars absorb and imbibe his honesty, his

truthfulness and his spirit of self-sacrihce. The

masters of India are simple men But tiny be

lieve they have a responsibility in connection with

the knowledge they possess. They believe that it

they do not impart that knowledge to others it

will depart from them.

"Together then, not in textbooks but in lit'.-,

master and scholar search for the Truth

"In this unity of life in which they work and

study, I believe, lies the real university, a perpetual

and a perpetuating institution. M

Mr. Tagore was asked to discuss the C mditiou

of the masses of India with respccl to general

knowledge such as is disseminated in American

common schools, fa complying with the request,

the Hindu scholar seemed completely unconscious

of the American feeling of the superiority of

American schools. Neither did he seem to res

the belief has long stood unchallenged in this

country that the masses m the Indian peninsula

dwell in abysmal ignorance.

"Mass education, that is quite a hobby of mine."

he said. "In India, I believe, we have greet!) th

better of you on that score. I do not beliee that

it is in accurate knowledge of reading and writing

that culture necessarily lies.

"In this country, the students come to a fixed

place where your fine school buildings are lo

cated, and there they receive the knowledge that is

contained inside of textbooks."

Mr. Tagore recurred to his phrase of the dead

ness and dryness of such routine education.

"In my country," he said, "there are trained

men, professional men who go from place to place

They go to marriage feasts or other great festival

Thousands upon thousands of persons gather t i

hear them. They include the young and the old

They listen with rapt attention while these mas

ters recite with action and with humor the living,

vivid stories of our literature. They recite the

great epics, the Mahabarata and the Puranas. and

the tales of mythology. And as thev recite them.

give them life.

"The people become acquainted with thc great

operas, the religious lyrics and the chorus songs, which

inculcate the great truths.

"It is like irrigation, this culture of ours, irrigation

that brings the waters to every man's door. The people

imbibe the great truths of philosophy, and they learn

the poetry of life.

Mr. Tagore hopes that his university may develop

into an institution to which westerners may come and

learn something of the philosophy and intellectual treas

ure of his people. He hopes, too, that some ol the

scientific knowledge of thc West may be placed at the

disposal of the youth in his country.

Tagore will probably remain in America during the

winter months. He plans a trip through the southern

states, which he says he was not privileged to visit

when he was in the United States previously.

Christmas in the Pueblos of the Aborigines Sissigg

to the ankles are white buckskin affairs like bootlegs,

feet are red moccasins embroidered with

; ! ls A bunch of feathers dyed in red and

'1 in one hand, and a showy silk haudker-

in tl c other. Heavy earrings, a score of bracelets

J"I a row of turquoise and shell necklaces complete

the toilet.

tace the women, a strump on the drums,

ing begins. The chorus h the choir

gUttermi The fed Of all the dancers

in unison with the music. Arms and

S the feathers wave alofl to the movemei I

iduallv the chorus rises, the feet tnovi

: a: the hands full of feathers wave more

e chorus Incomes a wild alhgro. 1 he men

thei

t .l " v '"le thei

tha neads. The women's feet are moving so fasl

h,.':''' - l ist that one can scarcely distinguish

"it ir feature ...i -I . t i. .......

ill S. Willi' I til..-I- I i i I r ' 111 s i I I I I. Ill k.' I 111

, v i ill U I tl I r li tin " r

inn tv n ui iv I i ivvi

"He oulor . :n . Tin native

th ,h ;r ululati. : grow louder and more rapid, and

w drowfied

l r gho is not moved at this SOSSM most

," t,c The adohe white walls a yard thick, set

oi ul recesied windows and many crude pictures in

altars arr,i',tmK Sinics Christ's life; the pitiful little

bunchrt i further dt adorned with candles, huge

oj t,rultnr Pol,,l"ets of paper flowers, and a wreath

s' and several wooden crosses; the logs above

all, yellow with great age. that support the roof; the

perspiring, painted Indian men, whirling about as it

in wild delirium; the dark-visaged women, in garments

of livid colors and with now disheveled hair over their

tacts, moving about with upraised hands, waving

feathers and silk handkerchiefs in perfect time to the

rapid chorus; the several hundred black-eyed, excited,

shouting onlookers, from wrinkled and bent old men

to children, clad in blankets and strange garments of

barbaric fancy; thc dozens of young women, among

the mass of spectators, who hold lighted candles abo

their swart faces and ebony hair, while they scream

with ecstatic excitement, all form a scene that the ntOSl

indifferent can never forget in a century of life. The

room resounds with the shouts of thc Indians, and the

altar shakes with the reverberations and thc stamping

of feet. For three and four hours this strange, im

reserve ceremony continues At exactly midnight, the

h.lls on the roof are jangled vigorously. At a signal

the chorUI Closes, and the dancers, running with tiny

streams of per piration and mingled colors, cease. A

Midden hush comes over all. In a few minutes the as

semblage participates in the celebration of the mass

by the lenient priest.

The Indians of the Laguna pueblo know full well

the cheer of Christmas time. The women dress in the

most striking combinations of blue, green, red and

black and may be seen bearing a carefully prepared pie

to the home of a friend There is a wealth of black

cake throughout the village and bread stud, seasoned

with chili, is on every table. The old padre is fairly

submerged by gifts of Indian culinar. Wine ii a

mocker here in thc land of the red man. also A

Iaguna decoction, squeezed from the smfafidel grap

and toned by an ingredient from the cactus, will set

any man's blood tingling. Every night in the holfda

week there are several hundred .shining eyes in I

ancient pueblo, but the drink BCtl as a promoUl Oi

pure and simple geniality, seldom COmbatrvcitesi

Every one n Lagussa visits in the holidaj week The

more sociable w ill sit m all night smoking, eating and

drinking, especially drinking. Thus the gaet pi i

ceeds. It reaches its culmination on New Years P.

There i a feast in every domicile for which am

preparation has been made. The next day cotttei th

reaction; the holidays arc over and La gunn takes DU Its

customary air of quiet and rest, to be broken oulv h

the advent of Easter and its attendant cerensonii I

men duly seek the sunniest spots outside their little

homes, and basking in the genial dry sunshine, slowlj

roll their cigarets of tobacco and corn husks and dream

the days away. The good housewives nut aw ay the ir

finery and go about their household duties, and the

pueblo sleepily awaits the comi..w of spring when there

is work for all in the planting of the year's harvest