LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 151, 27 November 1874, Page 3

LITERATURE.

TOM BRIMS’S INDIAN PRINCES. In Two Chapters. (From Chambers's Journal.) ( Continued.) At six o’clock that evening, instead of being at Tom Brims's hotel, 1 was some fifty miles away from Paris, hastening on the railway route to Calais on my way to England. The re-extension of my holiday had run out, and I knew that if I had any dispute with my principals in Fenchurch street I could not hope to tumble into an interpretership to great Indian nabobs. If there w r as no other reason, I did not know any eastern languages, which was perhaps sufficient. I did not choose to take up Brims’s invaluable time by explaining this, but before quitting Paris I posted a letter to him stating it. It was great uew r s I was taking back to the London office. The clerks were only a little less amazed at it, second-hand, than I was in the first instance. Business in the office, I fear, suffered from our watching the newspapers from day to day for the arrival of the groat personages in this country. The intimation was found in the Times on the morning of the fourth day. It appeared among the Parliamentary intelligence. A well known honourable member, who devotes himself mainly to showing that whatever relates to India, no matter how it is done, is grossly mismanaged, had indignantly asked the Indian Minister in the House of Commons, on the previous evening, whether it was true that the hospitality of the country was to be again disgraced by their .Highnesses the Indian princes, just upon the point of lauding on our shores, not being received in some special way befitting their rank and authority ? The minister, in reply, said every attention would be paid to the distinguished visitors. But at present, their Highnesses had not officially notified their wishes. In Paris, they had preserved a kind of incoguitio ; it was not known what their desires as to publicity might be. Owing to an accident which it was understood befell their interpreter, an offer of sciwices had been tendered to the princes by the English Embassy in Paris; but it had been replied by their Highnesses, that they had the adequate aid of an eminent Englishman in that capacity. Our office startled the whole premises, from basement to roof, by a round of cheers. The eminent Englishman could be no other than Tom Brims. He had achieved fame ;

he had been alluded to in the British Parliament, It calmed our excitement a little in the course of the morning to carve an inscription upon the desk which had had the honour in former times of propping his elbows, and on which he had momentarily rested the pewter pots containing his stout. Each one of us, by means of our penknives, contributed a word in turn. The composition stated that ‘ T. Brims, Esq, the eminent Englishman alluded to in Parliament by the Indian Minister, on the evening of the sixteenth of July, as the able interpreter of their Highnesses the Indian princes then visiting Europe, once laboured at that obscure desk. The junior member of the firm—for such a thing as this was not to be kept a secret from the principals—said we had made a mistake in the last word but four of the inscription. It was inaccurate, he said, to assert that Brims had * labored ’ at that desk. But Tom Brim’s fellow-clerks did him what feeble honor they could, in return for the greater honor he had conferred on them and on the office. As soon as we learned that the princes had arrived in London, and were located at Claridge’s, we made business bend to higher considerations. We arranged for a collective attendance in front of that hotel at an early hour on the following morning. We there patiently awaited the issuing forth of their Highnesses for the day’s sightseeing. By using our elbows, and by letting it be known among the group assembled there, that we were friends of the great interpreter, we got front places. It happened exactly as I had foretold to the clerks. The three bcjew'elled chieftains, their visages sallower, their dark eyes fiercer even than in Paris, came out with a stately shuffle; then followed Tom Brims, this time without the white linen curtain to his hat, "doubtless in compliment to bis native climate; and after him three or four Hindus of humble dress aud appearance belonging to the suite. At sight of Tom Brims, his old associates, drawing closer together in a semicircle, swung their hats into the air, giving a loud hurrah in his honor. It was misunderstood by the princes. They stopped short; the eldest, whose swarthy countenance became of a sickly pallor, drew his flashing scimitar half-way out of its jewel-enamelled sheath. I am ashamed to say there was a panic. The clerks fled, and so did the rest of the group whom the clerks had not knocked sprawling over in the first impulsive effort. These prostrate individuals a policeman on duty there judiciously attacked, saying, as he vigorously used his stick—“ Do you think as their ’ighnesses is used to sich rows as we have to put up with ?’ As for myself, I had a justification for going quickly into the middle of the road. Brims had told me of the habit the princes had of turning their displeasure upon their servants. I had no wish that even two or three Hindus should perish for me. But their Highnesses rallied. The impression that it was a plot to assassinate them passed away. The scimitar was restored to its hiding unstained by blood, and the princes got into their carriage. Tom Brims had recognised us. His blue eye closed in rapid succession several times. He had to enter one of the vehicles, but, before doing so, he came to the back of the carriage, beckoning to him one of us, the least far awayj- He left a message, saying that all was right; we should hear from him. We did more than hear from lorn; we saw him. we feasted with him. His greatness had neither turned his head nor spoiled his heart. On the following night, when he managed to get two hours of leisirrg, he entertained us at a hotel in Fleet'street in a manner which would have done tttrilfccredit to the princes, if they, instead of their interpreter, had themselves been the givers of the banquet. Behind Tom Brims’s chair squatted a turbaned servant whom he had brought with him; not to wait upon him, for the Hindu knew nothing of our habits. Brim* must have brought him as a specimen. It had a great effect, since, whenever Tom addressed him in queer-sounding words, th* servant went down on his hands and knees to reply. In his reply to our compliment* in drinking his health, he graciously wished he could make all our fortunes as easily as his own had been made. But it was impossible. His influence over the*‘princes, though it might be considerable, must ‘Sttot be over-estimated. All that he couM : do would be to make a post on their Sighaesses staff for one of us, by way of shewing what he could have done for all. His own dutifes were too much for him. What with messengers from the Indian Office, and calls from peeresses and ladies of fashion, who wanted the princes for lions, he was greatly overworked. If someone of us would not consider it derogatory to act for a * time as his secretary, he had no doubt that on his asking their Highnesses they would make the appointment. As to remuneration, our hopes must be moderate. He could n6t hold out a prospect of more than—say £2OO or £250 a month during the princes’stay, with a handsome present at the close. Everybody was attacked with a fit of modesty. They said it wastqoqiuch. ‘ Nay,’ answered Brims; it- is only their cashing one diamond more. See this is how the princes pay !’ He threw down upon the table three loose stones of large size, and which only half cut as they were, glinted and coruscated iu the gas-light. Putting them carelessly back into his waistcoat pocket, after our awed examination of them, he added that it would be difficult for him to make a selection from among ua—to choose who his secretary should oe. We must give him a little time to think about it. It would have to be a kind of lottery. When Tom Brims left, which he did amidst the most vociferous cheering, I, in pursuance of a signal he made to me, went with him, the, others being left to continue the entertainment. If any of them were indulging hopes of the secretaryship, they were doomed to disappointment. As soon as we were in the cab, the turbaned servant being outside on the box with the driver, Tom put his hand heavily on my shoulder and said—“ You arc the man ! It is only fair; you had the start of the others. You picked me up in Paris, you know. 1 I was overwhelmed. I told him that, owing to his friendship, my luck was going to be second only to bis own. Tom took mo ■with him into the hotel. Their Highnesses were in their rooms, as was sufficiently betokened by the rich odour of strange aromatic drugs, mingled with the scent of fine powerful tobacco, with which the atmosphere was heavy. The apartments were a handsome suite in the ordinary way, no doubt, but just then they had an untidy, makeshift look, owing to all the European furniture, with- the exception of a eitray

couch and an odd chair in the corner, having been removed. Thick cushions placed on cav carpet-covered mattresses here and there did not quite make up, in my unaccustomed eyes, for the absence of more furniture It too much resembled the last night in a house from which you were flitting, or else the first in which you had just arrived, before the household belongings were unpacked. Tom Brims passed into the innermost room for an audience with the nabobs. Several dark-skinned, melancholy-eyed figures, looking very mysterious in their long tucked-up robes, glided noiselessly in and out, never failing deeply to salaam to me in passing. I was embarrassed: to merely nod back seemed such a very poor acknowledgment of their elaborate ceremonial performance. , When Tom came back to me, he had a great bundle of open letters and documents m his hand. He was in ill-humor, and he made the Hindu attendants know it by the strength of the language he indulged in. .They only bent still lower before him—growing meeker, if it were possible. "‘I know that expense matters nothing to 'Mem,’ said Tom, having skirmished the I", natives from the room ; ‘ but it is the childishness of the thing that vexes me. I hnd in the Exhibition this morning they bought „ thirteen carriages.’ He flourished the accounts for them openly in his hand, his voice and eyes not quite free of traces of the banquet we had come from. ‘ Thirteen . If they had bought, say, three, well and good; but no; they go in for above a dozen. 1 say it is ridiculous. I tried to sooth him. ‘But,’ he persisted, ‘if they go on purchasing as they have done in Paris and here, there won’t be shipping enough in all the ports of. Britain to convey the things to Bombay.’ I waited while he hastily docketed the papers, finally stowing them away in a travelling desk. That done, he turned about, and clapped his hands, which startled me as much as our English cheer the day before had scared the nabobs. He grimly smiled, pointing, by way of explanation, to a crouching attendant, who had instantly appeared in the doorway in answer to the summons. In the course of a little confidential conversation which followed, Tom explained to me the princes plans. He said they would leave London the day after to-morrow for a short time. They were sensible people in their own way, he said, if they did not fool their money so. They had determined to get through their business before giving themselves up to pleasure. One chief object of their visit was to get really to know what England was, and, with that view, they intended going down to Manchester, and from thence to, Liverpool. Then, having made their observations in the manufacturing and commercial centres, they would return to the-. metropolis for a round of festivities among the grandees. ‘ Then,’ said Brims, ‘we shall show you what Indian splendour is. That is,’ he added, hollowly, and with a rapid change of face, ‘if we are all spared.’ ' He repeated this grave reflection more than once; a kind of melancholy progressively overpowered him, *1 fear,’ said he, ‘ that from present appearance a coroner’s inquest will have to be ’ held.’ t'. • ' • Utterly bewildered, I begged him to explain himself, ‘Pull me up,’he answered. ‘When I sat ; down here, I had forgotten the length of my legs., We will go out, and I’ll tell you all.’ After I had helped him up, and he had stretched his cramped legs into use again, we went down into the street. * I think,’ said Tom, ‘ your stipend ought to be mpre than the paltry sum I mentioned, because I fear it won’t last long. In a cernumber of days, I expect they will every one be starved to death !’ What could I do but doubt my own ears, ‘ In a land of plenty !’ I exclaimed. ‘They got rid of their cook in Paris,’he said wfthagroan. ‘Well, what of that?’ I asked; .‘why , don’t they get another cook ?’ /That shows how little you know of India. Indian?,’ he answered, ‘ There is not another cook for them within ten thousand miles. You might just as well jidl .tbem to get another interpreter.’ I ventured to say that some of the other servants could make shift in that way surely. ,j. mi; If.- ‘ I did not know that you were so perfectly ignorant,’ said Tom. ‘ That is the result of your ignorance of Indian superstitions. If these princes tasted a morsel cooked by a man not of the right caste, they wonld be lost for ever—at least, they believe so.. They will perish of hunger first, I can tell you. They are living now on some rice-cakes that happened to be baked ready, eked out with opium and tobacco-smoke. But they cannot do that long. I want to get them down to Manchester as quickly as I can, for I believe there is a little colony of Brahmins there, and they may get a mouthful of food.’ , ; To be continued.