March 31 Tuesday – The Wardha was piloted into the harbor of Madras, India at daybreak for a 24 hour stop. Sam was again suffering from a cold and cough. He was interviewed by the Madras Standard; the interview ran on Apr. 1; a longer version on Apr. 11 in the Calcutta Reis and Rayyet (see Budd, “Interviews” (119) p. 69). From the interview, Sam was quoted:

I am killed with this cold since morning. We went ashore and breakfasted at the hotel near Spencer’s shop intending to drive around Madras afterwards, but I found I could not manage it. I wasn’t equal to the heat with this cold, so I left my family to do that. …

I hope to reach Colombo on Friday. I am engaged for two “At homes” there I believe — not three. Thence I go to Mauritius and South Africa. This boat I am in, just suits my mood at present. I am in no hurry to get along. The more salt air I breathe the better I feel. We had a fine passage down from Calcutta except for a current that took about 30 miles off the rate of our travel each day. The Wardha is not one of those boats that cover 500 miles a day, but without running away from herself she keeps in the neighborhood of 200 [Budd, “Interviews” 71]. Note: the interview ended with the reporter observing that Sam “strolled to the other end of the deck to watch Harmston’s menagerie being hauled inboard.”

Sam also mentioned recently reading a book by Francis Henry Bennett Skrine about “the merits of a Hindu friend of the higher caste” (Journalist / Being the Life, Letters, and Correspondence of Dr. Sambhu C. Mookerjee, 1895, not in Gribben).

From Sam’s notebook:

Mch 31. Moved into the basin at Madras & anchored [Mar. 30]. Photos of Madura. / Lunch at hotel / In afternoon, young fellow & his sister — basket trick — jugglery — fortune-telling. Took on circus / “W.J. Wedgwood, Esq. Harmston’s Circus.’ On trunk / Fine menagerie — tigers, &c. [NB 37 TS 17].

Note: according to the above interview, Harmston’s Menagerie. Parsons notes that the Clemenses “were entertained on board ship in the afternoon by a pair who juggled, told fortunes, and performed a trick in which the sister was tied, crowded into a basket, apparently stabbed numerous times, and brought forth unscathed and unbound [“Sightseer” 93 notes].