Thus ended the
most sensational and exciting controversy Calcutta has ever
experienced, and one which, unfortunately, struck a note of discord
between the European and Indian communities, the effects of which are
still apparent, and in a measure marred that feeling of kindliness and
mutual trust and good-will that formerly existed between the two
races.
A MUCH-CHANGED CITY.
As for the appearance of Calcutta half a century and more ago, it was
very different to what it is now, and there were, of course, none of
the amenities of life which make the city a pleasant place to live in
to-day, even in the hot weather and rains. There were no paved
side-walks, the water supply came from tanks and wells, there were no
electric lights or fans, and no telephone. The drainage system was of
the crudest with open drains in many side streets. There were no
"Mansions" or blocks of flats as there are now, and generally the city
was a very different place to the Calcutta of to-day. The floods in
the streets are pretty bad at the present time after a heavy monsoon
storm, but nothing like what they were then, I remember going to
office one morning after three days and nights of heavy rain, and at
the cornet of Park and Free School Streets, where Park Mansions stand
now, there was quite a lake from which as I was passing I was startled
to see a tall form rise from the water.
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