E-text prepared by David E. Brown
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/underbigdipper00deryiala |
UNDER THE BIG DIPPER
HELÈNE
UNDER
THE BIG DIPPER
BY
D. GEORGE DERY
BRENTANO’S :: :: :: NEW YORK
MCMXVI
Copyright, 1916, By D. George Dery
TO HER
TO WHOSE GRACIOUS FORBEARANCE
AND NEVER FALTERING FAITH THE
EXISTENCE OF THIS BOOK IS DUE,
I HEREWITH DEDICATE THIS, MY
FIRST LITERARY EFFORT
TO MY DEAR WIFE
March nineteenth, 1916
INDIA the wonderful—India the home of Buddhaand the land of mystery and misery. The countryof glorious traditions and unsatisfied desires!What ambitions have not been dreamed, what visionsnot conjured in your cause! Assyrian and Greek,Mongol and Parsee, Portuguese rover, Dutch trader,Russian diplomat and English merchant prince—allhave sought thee and thy wealth, all have fought andstriven, chicaned and murdered, sneaked and schemed—forthy gold and dominion over thy people.
And the result? A land teeming with beings abjectand low; a land where Paradise might have been nestlingamongst the giant hills of the North, now laidwaste and desolated of its ancient splendors—a landof dreams, but a land of unfulfilled desires. The countryof caste and the grave of unborn ambitions; thecountry of dirt and superstition; the cradle of plaguesand epidemics and famines; the land of the noblestpalaces and temples, as well as of the meanest hovelswhich serve as dwellings for its sad-eyed patient inhabitants.
And over all rises and sets the sun of the tropics,over all shine the moon of Gautama and the stars ofZoroaster. Over all there rest the curses of disease,dirt and ignorance, the ready tools of greed and lust[4]of power, the outcome of lack of coherence and theterrible rule of classes.
This cradle of humanity is still a couch of prodigiousproductiveness—and to our eternal shame be it confessed—theseall-enduring, passiv