7. Religious Denominations and Charities
Religious Denominations and Charities In England the denomination known as the Church of England is integrated with the power of the monarchy. The King or Queen of England must belong to this denomination, and all the subjects of that country must bear the expenses of its bishops, etc. The Government extracts a heavy tax from them, whether or not they belong to that denomination, and donates it to the bishops of "The Church" and their disciples. This practice of extracting forced obeisance, in a progressive country like England, is very strange indeed.1 It is said that even the bishops and other clergymen of the Church of England who go to our country to perform ecclesiastical duties for the Government are paid fat salaries from the Treasury of India, although I do not know whether this is true.2 If it is, then that too is a marvel.
In the United States, no religious denomination is integrated with the power of the people, therefore the people here accept any denomination which agrees with their own way of thinking; and the money they give for defraying the expenses of the churches, clergymen, etc. of that denomination is given voluntarily.
The Government does not levy a separate tax on them on account of religion.
Even so, religion is not any the less strong here than in England. In England only the Church of England gets high respect, because it is the denomination supported by the monarchy. The adherents of that denomination turn up their noses at the followers of other denominations as "dissenters" (i.e., holding different beliefs). In the free States of America no one publicly accords greater respect to one denomination than to another, because no one has heard of any particular denomination as being especially favored by those in power.
There are many in England who claim that people would become irreligious if the Government did not provide for the support of religion. But this claim of the English is totally false, because in England there are 144 churches per every
100,000 people, whereas in the United States there are 181 churches for the same number of people. This disproves the claim that religious belief is less strong in the United States, where religion is not supported by the Government.
In the year 1880, there were 92,000 churches in the United States, of which more than 80,000 were built by Protestants and the rest belonged to the Roman
Catholics. The total movable and immovable property of all these churches amounted to $350,000,000, or more than Rs. 1,000,000,000. There are a total of 77,000 clergymen of various denominations. About a hundred and ¤fty years ago, there was strong denominational discord in this country. The Puritans of Massachusetts felt a deep hatred for the followers of other denominations. They persecuted many Quakers. They accused many women of other denominations of witchcraft and burned them alive;3 they hanged some people and imprisoned others. They whipped some like animals right in the streets, and exiled others after wresting away their property. In the year 1705 the state government of Virginia passed a resolution that whosoever denies that God is a Trinity and that the Bible is a divinely inspired book should be punished with three years' imprisonment. And should he deny these things yet again, it should be made very dif¤cult for him to get government employment, etc.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the American people were trying to sever their political ties with England and become independent, they put aside their internal denominational differences and acted in unison. In the fear that their country would acquire a permanent stamp of English political power and of "The Church" if they did not act in unison at the time, they abandoned denominational differences, put up a united ¤ght against England, and became independent. For the same reason, even now these people disregard denominational differences and act in unison, and will continue to do so. It is not that there is no denominational prejudice in this country. However, because equal freedom is available to all in matters of religion, people prefer not to pay undue attention to or argue about each other's beliefs, and they enjoy a great deal of mutual social intercourse. Therefore one would ¤nd more examples in this country than in England of people belonging to different denominations who have friendly dealings with each other. If a religious association is to have a meeting, its members also invite their friends who are opposed to their own belief. Such an invitation is dif¤cult to refuse because of the claims of friendship. Thus people of opposing beliefs come together and have an easy opportunity to understand one another's beliefs. This removes, to a large extent, hatred for people of opposing beliefs, which stems from ignorance. This is a very important thing, worth remembering by all. Chief among the reasons which cause opposition and hostility between two persons is mutual ignorance. Another reason is the tendency to ¤nd fault. The people here have largely given up the habit of looking for faults among those belonging to different denominations in their own country and religion. Most of the people in the United States are Christians, among whom there are two chief denominations, Roman Catholics and Protestants, with numerous subdivisions. Their differences may be denominational, but not religious. These denominational differences do not obstruct any work
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for the national good.i One ¤nds cases of husband and wife, or parents and children, in the same family belonging to different denominations, although their natural love for one another remains undiminished.
From the establishment of the nation of the United States to the present day, no single religious denomination has received special patronage from the Government; nor will this happen in the future. The government is concerned with religious denominations to the same extent that it is with medicine, agriculture, or general trade and commerce; and not more. Only if the religious beliefs of a person or group receive interference from others so that they suffer as a result will the Government intervene in religious matters in order to prevent such an eventuality. Similarly, the Government will not allow people to follow a religious belief which violates federal laws. For example, the Mormon sect believes that a man should have several wives at the same time; this violates the federal laws of the United States. That is why the Federal Government has resolved not to allow this and a couple of other similar beliefs to be practiced.
The Anglican Church in England has a custom that bishops sell livings to clergymen. I have heard that the people there sell positions in the army and many other positions in the same manner. The public sale of clergymen's positions is very harmful to the religious sentiment of the country and the people.
He who pays a higher price obtains the position, irrespective of his merit. A wealthy person buys a rich living which is on the market, hires one or two curates to do the work, and lives a life of pleasure. This whole business is somewhat like the high priests of our own temples and monasteries. As a result of this system there are many unsuitable clergymen among the Anglicans. I do not claim that all their clergy are of this type; my only point is that there are people there who buy clergymen's positions. If a village has a good minister, the people there are to be counted very fortunate!
Clergymen's positions are not sold in this fashion in America, where the clergy are appointed by the people, with a view to their learning, virtue, and sense of duty. This does not mean that all the clergy here are mines of virtue. A clergyman found to be unsuitable is removed by the people. Because the clergy are learned and virtuous, the people have a greater involvement in religion. The management of churches here runs smoothly like the overall management in the nation. Every church has a committee which manages church affairs. In anything and everything in the United States, management follows public opinion; the same is the case with religion.
In England there is another evil custom that every church owns large landed property, that is to say, land has been assigned to each church. This land is leased out to other people as a source of income; the leaseholder can utilize the holy land for any unholy purpose, as long as the church earns an income. There are many liquor distilleries and liquor stores on such land. How very surprising that 156 The Peoples of the United States
the money which is to be utilized for saving people is acquired by destroying people! Here there is very little land attached to churches. Some years ago this country also had the practice of leasing church lands to all and sundry. There was a Methodist church in which people would sing psalms above while the basement was rented for storing liquor. Another strange thing was that, while this country was engaged in the slave trade, these people did not feel ashamed to accept money from the sale of slaves and spend it on church expenditure and on good deeds like evangelization. They were ¤rmly convinced that God had created the Black people of Africa, like cattle, for their own willful use; why then should it matter if the money from their sale was used for religious deeds? In our own country, the upper castes including the Brahmins also believed that the people of the Shudra caste were created by God only to serve them, and that such service was their only means of salvation. People in a state of barbarity always hold such evil beliefs. For a person to make others toil for him mercilessly without payment, and, moreover, to act as if he has conferred a favor on them by allowing them to serve him and thereby opening the way for their salvation— is this not barbarity? Equally barbaric is the utterly demonic practice of selling human beings and using the proceeds for the salvation of other people and for evangelization. It is a matter for rejoicing that such practices have now ceased altogether in the United States.
Here the expenses of the churches as well as those of the clergy are defrayed by charitable donations from the people. The preacher of a church which has a congregation of ¤ve hundred gets an average monthly salary of two hundred dollars. In addition, persons appointed to look after the church also have to be paid high salaries. The chairs, pews, lamps, mats, carpets, etc., in the church also cost a great deal. (The churches here are very well decorated.) The congregation pays a contribution to cover all this expense. Every Sunday, after the morning and evening service, the persons appointed by the managing body of the church go around the congregation with plates in hand; it is customary for people to put whatever money they can afford into the plate, to be used for religious purposes.
There is another way of earning money which should be mentioned here, although I do not approve of it. Rent is charged for the pews or chairs in the front portion of the church; they are reserved for those who pay. It is not proper that such trade should be carried on in the Lord's prayer-house, and that only the rich should be in a better position to hear the sermon. A great deal of money is earned in this manner. At pilgrimage places like Gaya in North India, there is a nonsensical belief that only the ancestors of one who pays the priests well attain a higher state; this is a similar belief. It is not to be supposed that all the people who rent the front seats are religious; there are many hypocrites among them. It is considered a sign of gentility, that is, re¤nement, to go to church every Sunday
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with one's entire family. So there are many people who go to church, even without piety in their hearts. There are also many here who give to charity only for the sake of publicity. For their generous charitable gifts they may not be awarded lengthy honors by their Government, as Baronet, G.C.S.I., C.S.I., C.I.E., etc., are awarded by our Government in India; however, they do get a great deal of publicity in the newspapers.
Not even all these means can defray all the expenses of the church; therefore the women here employ various means to collect large amounts of money for religious expenditure. Women constitute two-thirds of the congregation, and about half the money needed for church expenses comes from them. I think it is doubtful whether these religious organizations would have continued to function in the absence of women. Men are not as concerned about the livelihood of the clergy as women are. In our country, women are never empty-handed when they attend Purana recitals or go to the temple. They place some money, a betel nut, a ®ower, some fruit, or at least a handful of rice before the Puranika.4 (When menfolk go to the temple, they usually content themselves with sounding the bell with their empty hands.) Thus most of the priests and Puranikas are supported by the charity of women. Even so, the pious Puranikas tell people: "Women are inherently evil. The Creator has made them by combining everything that is evil in Creation. They are shackles on men's legs, and the cause of the destruction of religion. Those who desire salvation should avoid seeing their faces.
Women should not have the right to study the Shastras, they should not read the Vedas, they should not preach; women alone are the cause of men's destruction in this world."5 Indeed the conduct and preaching of these Puranikas show the height of gratitude! In olden times, even in the United States men harbored similar derogatory and strange beliefs regarding women. They said that women should never preach. Many people went so far as to believe that women should not even sing psalms. Although this belief has not yet disappeared altogether, it is on the decline. Of the total of 77,000 preachers in the United States, 165 are women. Twenty years ago, there were hardly four or ¤ve. At that time it was considered to be highly improper for a woman to preach.
Like Christians in other countries, these people also observe Sunday as a holy day. On Sunday, trading and businesses are closed in almost all places; in the States where they are not, pious people are trying to get them to close. All Government of¤ces, public and private schools, and factories are closed on Sunday.
On that holy day, pious men and women go to church, pray to God, and listen to sermons. They consider evangelization to be a part of their religion, and invite everybody to their churches. Although there is no religious education in schools, most people give their children religious instruction at home every day. Children are gathered in church and given sermons on portions of the Bible. The schools
158 The Peoples of the United States
held in churches every Sunday for preaching to children and adults are called Sunday schools.
The people here are also greatly concerned about preaching to the new settlers in this country, and about leading them on the right path. The societies which evangelize in this manner are called Home Missions. There are a large number of men and women who work day and night to evangelize with utmost sincerity.
They believe that a person cannot obtain salvation except through the Christian religion; therefore they spend a great deal of money on spreading their religion in foreign countries. Hundreds of men and women in this country have left their homes, comforts and conveniences, etc., only for the sake of religion, to travel far and wide for the welfare of people in foreign countries. About a hundred years ago, some American missionaries went to our country. At the time the [East India] Company Government did not allow them to evangelize within their territories. They made no headway in the Bengal and Madras [Presidencies]. Many of them lost their wives, and they suffered great hardships. Then they came to Bombay. Even there the Government did not wish them to stay.
But in the end the English Government allowed them to stay for fear of public censure if they drove out of their territory the harmless people who had come to evangelize.6 The climate of Bombay did not agree with them, nor was the Government favorable to them; and the local people hated and harassed them.
They had no protector in that foreign land, and their own country was far away.
Also, the means of traveling to and from their country were not widely and easily available as they are now. In spite of all these obstacles, they continued their work. At present they have thirty to thirty-¤ve societies in India. Their efforts are in accordance with the words of Christ: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It would be totally wrong to suppose that all those who contribute money to such evangelical work are rich. It is the poor who help a great deal in this work. Here the rich are not much concerned about religion; or rather, only a few of them have such concern. In New York there is a huge playhouse, known as the Italian Opera House, built by seventy rich local residents.
It cost $9,800,000, to which $140,000 each were contributed by those seventy!
They spend money on luxuries; help for evangelization comes from the poor.
Although the American people are convinced that those who are not Christians will go to eternal hell, they spend only $5,500,000 on this effort. Today there are at least 10,000,000 people in the United States who listen to sermons in churches and belong to one of the Christian denominations. Their wealth increases by about $310,000,000 every year, and they own one-¤fth of the total wealth of this country, which amounts to $8,728,400,000 (that is, Rs. 26,185,200,000). Such wealthy people spend only $5,500,000 per year to support evangelization. This religious expenditure is only one 159th part of their wealth. It is very little comReligious Denominations and Charities 159
pared to the tremendous wealth of the people in this country; and the greater share of it is borne by the poor rather than the rich, and especially by poor women. The women here make great efforts to collect this amount. In this country, 10,000,000 people drink liquor worth $900,000,000 (that is, Rs. 2,700,000,000) every year, and smoke tobacco worth $490,000,000. This shows that tobacco and liquor enjoy greater importance than religion in this country. This is sad and deplorable indeed. The societies for temperance and moral instruction here make great efforts to eradicate both these vices in this country. I pray to God to grant them success and to free this beautiful country from the grip of Demoness
Liquor, Fiend Tobacco, and Immorality.
The religious people in our country give alms to everybody who begs. It is good to give to the destitute, but after assessing who is truly deserving; this is not done in our country, with the result that beggary has become rampant. Our virtuous ancestors have said, "Alms given to an undeserving person are wasted; they incur sin." But who pays any heed? Suppose there is a fat bairagi; if anybody gives him money, he will spend it on smoking ganja.7 The addiction to ganja which has already ruined him passes on from him to children and to other people, because there are many who follow the example of such holy men! Therefore, this is how charity to unsuitable persons promotes idleness and vice in the country, and the country sinks to a lowly state. I have visited many places of pilgrimage myself, and also seen the system of charity there. Alms given to the priests there are undeserved; these priests reduce their patrons to poverty. The priest who extracts the most from his patron in the name of religion is considered learned and regarded as very "clever" and wise.
The people here have a custom of giving to charities, which is very different from ours. Here, nobody wanders through the streets begging. Popular opinion and the laws of the land are openly opposed to beggary. Alms are not given to anybody who comes to the door to beg. Blind and lame, weak and aged persons sit in the street selling matchboxes, strings, mirrors, and other small things.
Some good-hearted person buys a thing or two from them and pays a little more than the actual price. These people do not give to those who beg; but that does not mean that they are not compassionate. They are very particular about giving only to the deserving. People in villages and cities collect money through contributions in order to support those who are destitute, crippled, or too weak to work. In addition, the inhabitants also have to pay a small tax for charitable works, which they pay willingly. This money is handed over to the local societies which manage charities, called Boards of Charities. The men and women who manage these societies are elected by the people; they are highly respectable, honest, and pious, and do their work with great care and concern. The management of these boards is similar to that of other societies. Of the money spent on charity in the country, half comes from the people and half from the Govern160 The Peoples of the United States
ment. All this money is spent only on those who are truly crippled and unable to earn a living.
There are many people in our country who never leave home. The people here are very different. They often travel from place to place in search of trade or employment. They are sometimes reduced to poverty after going to another town or province. In addition, there is a great deal of poverty among the people who come from Europe to settle here. Many such people are stricken by poverty, and travel throughout the country. There are also beggars of various kinds.
There are many pious people, including women, who try to discover where the poor live, what they do, what their condition is, etc. These good people do this work in an honorary capacity, without expectation of return; even so, the work is sometimes mismanaged. This cannot be helped. No matter what task one undertakes, one is likely to make mistakes sometime or other. It is human nature to be confused. Whoever works will make mistakes. Most people in our country do not do anything themselves, but are very quick to detect the mistakes of anyone who starts anything. The American people do not stop at detecting faults; they devise ways and means of rectifying the mistake, and provide great encouragement to a person who has undertaken any benevolent work.
There are two ways of helping the poor in this country. One is to provide shelter to the destitute, and to provide food and clothing to those who lack them.
The other is to ¤nd the people who work but are not able to earn suf¤cient food and clothing, and to make proper arrangements for them, which means to inquire as to who exploits them, what rights they have, etc., and to protect them from their oppressors.
In our country beggary has increased greatly because of the practice of thoughtlessly giving alms to mendicants who have become lazy owing to their addiction to ganja, tobacco, etc., and to such others who are capable of work but remain idle. That is why one should not incur sin by giving alms, which results in supporting vice. In the United States, no one who has any capacity to work receives alms. The tenet of their religion is "He who wants to eat, must work."
In our country there is no limit to laziness; anybody gets food without doing anything. A person only needs to smear ash all over his body, let his hair grow into long tangles, wear bead necklaces, or don saffron robes. Because he is a holy man, people feed him free of charge. Our people consider it an important part of religion to beg, and to give alms to those who beg. As soon as a man begins to earn well, a number of people suddenly turn up to claim a relationship with him and live off him. But should he fall on hard times, the same people would not hesitate to turn against him! This does not happen here. Everybody works according to his capacity; even small children go about selling newspapers, loudly announcing the important news items. Some shovel snow in winter. Even destitute widows earn their livelihood. Their small children do all kinds of work
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to help their mothers. Here even begging is turned into a form of work. There are people called Gypsies who are beggars like the kaikadis8 in our country; but they entertain people by playing instruments, etc. Many beggars make monkeys or bears dance in order to amuse people. There are asylums here which give shelter to old people and children who are destitute. Even in these, suitable work is provided.
There is a large number of consumptives here. Drinking and the use of tobacco are among the chief causes of this disease; even so, these people do not rid themselves of these twin vices! Our people are also rapidly imitating these two vices and becoming terribly debilitated. The reason for our Raosahib9 to be in delicate health, or the reason why Raosahib has a headache and is unable to meet visitors, is liquor! This vice leads to havoc at home, loss of honor outside, and a waste of money; and it carries one to Lord Yama, the deity of Death, quite soon. Even so, our people get addicted to these vices. Great indeed is our desire for imitation! Many people here are sick because of these two vices. Some say that their spleen is affected! Some say that they cannot digest food! Some say that they have no strength! Thus the bodies of many people who are addicted to liquor and tobacco have become veritable lodging houses of numerous diseases, especially consumption. Such sick persons are sent to poorhouses. Going to a poorhouse is considered to be very shameful here; there are many who say that they would rather die than go to one, and who act accordingly. There are some here who would shoot themselves but not live in these homes for destitutes.
Even these sick people are made to do light work in these places, such as watering
®owering plants. Self-esteem reigns supreme everywhere here. These people sincerely feel that they should not eat at the expense of others. Here nobody gives or receives money without a proper reason. In our country, most people do not even know what self-esteem and self-respect mean. They would accept anything given free, without any qualms, and say that it will tide them over for the next few months. They will borrow and, if unable to repay the debt, say that they will do so in their next life. But they feel no compunction about the fact that they would be compelled to be reborn in order to repay the debt!10
The number of beggars who come to the United States from other countries is very large. Of all the inhabitants here, one-seventh are foreigners; of the criminals in the country, 30 percent are foreigners.11 The chief reason is that foreigners do not get work quickly, and are prompted to commit acts which lead them to the "rent-free house." There are not many physically defective people here, who have to be supported by the general public, because those who migrate to this country leave their own only if they are strong enough. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 33 persons per thousand require public support. In the United States only ¤ve persons in the same population require public support, that is, one person in every two hundred, or half a person per one hundred.
162 The Peoples of the United States
This immediately gives an idea of how low the extent of beggary, and how much work, there is in this country. I think that in our own country, the proportion of beggars must be even 150 percent! Now there are a lot of outsiders in the United States. That means that there is quite a mixture of all kinds of people here. There is also a large population of Negroes who were formerly sold here as slaves. Among the Negroes there are very few beggars or persons requiring public support. This is a good example of how a people become industrious once they get the freedom which they had lacked earlier. There are many professionals among the Negroes; some are lawyers, some barristers, some businessmen; others are engaged in some profession or another—all are hardworking. It is not yet twenty-¤ve years since the slaves were freed; but already they have quite equaled other people in every ¤eld. This is a perfect illustration of all the advantages which ®ow from granting freedom to people. The people who favored the traf¤c in slaves claimed that the emancipation of Negroes from slavery would bring a terrible disaster upon the country, that they would ruin the country, that beggary would become rampant, robberies would increase, peace would be shattered. But happily not one of the things they predicted happened. There are those who are not quali¤ed to do any work in spite of being able-bodied; the religious societies here consider it their duty to make such people work, and to provide them training. One-third of the amount spent on beggars in England, that is, $18,000,000, is spent on beggars in the United States. This ¤gure shows that there are very few beggars here. Some of the reasons why there are very few beggars in the United States are as follows. Only those who are able to work emigrate to another country. There is plentiful land here which can be brought under cultivation. That is why there is a lot of work, and a hard-working person would not ever starve anywhere. Laziness has no prestige here. A person who enjoys the idleness associated with sainthood, claiming that his God would provide for him, would not receive any food here.
In olden times, convicts from Austria, Germany, and England were shipped to the United States, but now the Federal Government has made very strict laws regarding beggars and immigrants. They forbid such criminals, beggars, and persons who are lazy or unwilling to work to enter the country. When I made inquiries about the laws governing foreigners who come here to settle down, people said to me, "Why do you want such information? We do not wish to have the beggars and the unemployed people in your country to come here." This shows that our poverty and idleness have become notorious even here! These people say, "We do not mind if the industrious people from your country come here." I assured them that is exactly what would happen. How would idle people come here? If any idle person comes here from a foreign country and is incapable of, or uninterested in, working and maintaining himself, he is compelled by these people to quickly get up and go back home.
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There are very few physically defective people here, that is, ones who are blind, mute, lame, crippled, etc., as mentioned above. There is one blind person in every
2,720 people, and one deaf and dumb in every 2,094. It is proper to give alms to the blind; however, if they receive some education and start working according to their ability, it bene¤ts the nation and reduces poverty.12
There are many schools for the blind here.13 Every State has at least two or three schools for the blind; all their expenses are paid by the state government.
In these schools the blind are given an education through the sense of touch.
The blind have a very sharp sense of hearing and touch; all their perception is concentrated in these senses. They have a quick grasp. The blind do weaving and many other kinds of work. I have brought with me some articles made by them.
They are taught geography; globes and maps are specially made in order to give them knowledge through touch. They are taught mathematics. The kindergarten method of education has worked wonders for the education of the blind!
There are many among the blind who sing and also many who play musical instruments. I heard a blind person play the organ in church; the sound was very sweet. The parents here take very good care of their children's eyes, etc. The mothers in our country put drops of oil in the children's eyes and smear them with lampblack;14 this is not done here. There are also a number of schools for the deaf and mute. Even in the task of educating them, the imaginative people here have made the utmost progress! There is a school for them in New York,15 which has 500 students. Their education seemed to me to be a marvel. There was a boy in the school who was deaf and mute, and also blind. The man who showed me around the school also showed me this terribly disabled boy. He touched his hand with his own ¤ngers and told him, "An Indian lady has come to see you, talk to her if you wish." In a trice he wrote a few sentences about me on a machine called "typewriter" and brought the paper over. My guide gave me the paper and I have preserved it carefully. On it the boy had written in brief my name, that of my country, and my purpose in coming to this country, and also expressed his pleasure at my visit. I was astounded to see this, and felt that if a miracle could happen in this world, this was it! Besides these, there are numerous orphanages and industrial schools here. There are schools also for feeble-minded children. There are altogether 430 homes and schools of different types for the weak, the destitute, etc. There are 56 schools for the blind and the mute, and 30 schools for feeble-minded children. All the schoolteachers teach their students with great care and understanding.
The people here believe that works such as improving the conditions in prisons, visiting the prisoners, advising them, etc., are pious deeds. In our country people believe that they have no connection whatsoever with prisoners; moreover, they probably think that such a connection would bring shame upon them.
Therefore nobody ever goes to a prison to inquire after them. One cannot say 164 The Peoples of the United States
that absolutely all the people who go to prison are criminals. (And so what if they are? Why should we not visit them in prison to inquire after them?) An innocent person might also have occasion to go to prison. Who can know with absolute certainly whether or not he will have to go to prison? I have not yet seen a prison in India. Earlier I knew nothing at all about the prisons there, but I got some idea from Mr. Agarkar's A Hundred and One Days in Dongri Prison after the affair at Kolhapur.16 Fifty years ago prisoners in the United States were treated very badly. In most cases they were locked up in dungeons or mines.17 Even children were tormented in different ways by putting chains around their necks and shackles on their arms and legs. In short, there was a great deal of ill-treatment all around. But since good, pious men and women started visiting them, these prisons have become like our zenanas.18 I have seen the prisons here. They are clean and have been made safe from ¤res. The prisoners are turned into useful people. They are advised to conduct themselves properly after being released.
There are libraries for them. There are pots of ®owering plants. Every Sunday is a holiday, when they pray. Good people treat them with compassion, in the belief that they have come to this pass owing to a lack of proper upbringing by their parents. There are several societies of such good people. There are many reformatories for children. The ¤rst such home was established in 1824. In 1874 there were thirty-four such reformatories, valued at $8,000,000. During these ¤fty years, a total of 91,402 children have been reformed, and about 70,000 children have turned out to be industrious and respectable. Moral education is provided in these homes. Great care is taken to avoid bad qualities being passed on from one to another. The prisoners here do not receive much corporal punishment, but they do get chained. In many States, electrocution is used for capital punishment, instead of hanging. When a prisoner is released after serving his term, he receives all the rights of a citizen.
There are many hospitals of different types here, for those suffering from different diseases, and also many for ordinary patients. The Government pays their expenses, and many hospitals are run at public expense. Pious people visit the patients and cheer them up in many ways. Some women visit in¤rmaries and sing sweet songs and psalms, and read religious books to the patients. Some tell stories and give the news, some read newspapers out loud, some play sweet instruments, some distribute sweets, some give fragrant ®owers. The custom of giving ®owers has become popular here. The society which gives ®owers is called the Flower Mission. I have seen the pious woman who ¤rst had the idea of giving
®owers. She has been bedridden for about ten years because of paralysis. Even so, she still performs many such pious deeds. There is real compassion here. In our country nobody knows what real compassion means. There are many patients there, and many hospitals are being built for them. It would be very good if anyone would visit them and speak to them sweetly, inquire after them, give
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them ®owers, etc. We are eager to imitate the Americans and other Western people in matters like drinking, smoking, and talking of atheism. If, instead, we eagerly imitate their good qualities and customs, how greatly it would bene¤t us and our country!
Note in the Original Text i. The people of our own country should give this matter serious thought.
Although we belong to different denominations and religions, we can and must unite in the work of the national and public good. We may believe that by following a particular religion or denomination we will go to a special, superior place in the next world, and our neighbors who belong to another denomination or religion will go to a quite different place; but such a belief should be limited to the next world. At least in this world we have to live in the same country and on the same earth. At least in this world we do not ¤nd that the excellent divine gifts, such as sunlight, rain, wind, and earth, are available only to us and not to those of other [religious] beliefs. We can see that the Divine Grace which is shown to us is shown in exactly the same degree to our brothers and sisters belonging to other religions and denominations; why should we not treat them with friendship, courtesy, and love? Why then should we not unite in the work of national and public good? Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Shaivites,
Vaishnavites, devotees of Ganapati, Shias, Sunnis, Episcopalians, Presbyterians,
Methodists, Unitarians, Trinitarians, and believers in thirty-three crore gods—all these should put aside religious animosity and unite themselves in order to serve the country.19
166 The Peoples of the United States