{"id":9241,"date":"2023-03-28T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=9241"},"modified":"2023-03-28T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T05:00:00","slug":"the-cursing-of-pertab-singh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/the-cursing-of-pertab-singh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cursing of Pertab Singh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn83030272\/1915-03-28\/ed-1\/seq-31\/\">The Sun, March 28, 1915<\/a>. By F. W. Poole.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The ryot crouched in his hut and moaned with his face to the plastered wall.<br\/>He rent his rage and tore his hair and wept for his ruler\u2019s fall.<br\/>The children hushed their simple songs and whimpered and wailed with dread.<br\/>Sir Pertab Singh, their prince, their king, had dared to touch the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The white sahibs had warned him though the slain was of their kin.<br\/>They knew the awful laws of caste\u2014to touch the dead is sin.<br\/>\u201c\u2019Tis the son of a friend and comrade. His father is not here.\u201d<br\/>Sir Pertab gently bore the corpse and laid it on the bier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Five hundred priests of Brahma\u2019s shrine awaited at the morn<br\/>To make an ancient honored name a byword and a scorn.<br\/>Calmly cool, Sir Pertab heard his fate all men might know\u2014<br\/>To be with outcast sweepers as the lowest of the low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat care I for your paltry ban?\u201d and as they paused he smiled.<br\/>\u201cIf naught can soil me save your clan, then I am undefiled.<br\/>Mine is a higher, nobler caste, of which you do not know,<br\/>A caste as great as thine is mean\u2014as high as thine is low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA caste that was old and honored ere your upstart creed began\u2014<br\/>The caste of a loyal soldier. The creed of an honest man<br\/>Who serves men less with a weakling word, and more with a well wrought deed\u2014<br\/>Who lives for the good of his kin and kind, and dies for his country\u2019s need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe caste of a man\u2014his word a law which he obeys the first\u2014<br\/>Of one who well to serve the best will ever dare the worst\u2014<br\/>Who stands unawed by a host in arms, nor quails at a parting breath\u2014<br\/>Walks straight and true with a friend unto\u2014and beyond\u2014the gates of death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>The high priests gasped in wonderment, the vast throng gazed in awe<br\/>That the will of a man was strong to stand in the face of an iron law.<br\/>The pillars of caste that a realm had reared to shadow a man and king<br\/>Wavered and crumbled and disappeared\u2014and left Sir Pertab Singh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Sun, March 28, 1915. By F. W. Poole. The ryot crouched in his hut and moaned with his face to the plastered wall.He rent his rage and tore his hair and wept for his ruler\u2019s fall.The children hushed their simple songs and whimpered and wailed with dread.Sir Pertab Singh, their prince, their king, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,18],"tags":[122],"class_list":["post-9241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-sun","tag-f-w-poole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}