Recollections Of Calcutta For Over Half A Century Part 3

POLICY OF INSURANCE.

I should just like to relate a little episode that occurred in my very early days in Calcutta, which nearly resulted disastrously for every one concerned. It will serve, amongst other things, to enlighten people of the present generation as to the wide difference that subsists between that time and the present in respect of the treatment of policy-holders generally by insurance companies. The firm with which I was then connected were agents of a Hongkong house, and one of our duties was to pay to the Universal a.s.surance Company, half-yearly, the premium on a policy on the life of a man who was staying in England. I forget exactly what the amount Was, but I recollect it was something considerable. One fine day I was startled beyond measure by the receipt of a notice from the then agents, Gordon Stewart & Co., to the effect that the days of grace having expired for payment of the premium, the policy in question under the rules had lapsed and had been consequently cancelled. My feelings can be better imagined than described, as I alone was responsible, and I was fully aware of the gravity of the position. I made a clean breast of the state of affairs to my Burra Sahib, and he instructed me to go straight over to the agents and explain matters, and at the same time authorised me to offer to pay anything they might see fit to impose in the nature of a fine. I got very little satisfaction or comfort from my interview with the head of the firm, a Mr. William Anderson whose soubriquet was Gorgeous Bill, who told me that he could do nothing personally, that the matter would have to be submitted to the directors at their next weekly meeting, and that the probabilities were that they would enforce the rule and cancel the policy. The following few days were a veritable nightmare to me, as I fully expected they would act as he intimated they would and as they were fully ent.i.tled to do. At last the fatal day arrived, and I waited in fear and trembling outside the Board room, whilst the directors deliberated over the affair. To my intense joy and relief they announced their decision which was to the effect that they had taken into consideration all the facts of the matter and they thought a fine would meet the exigencies of the case, but I must not do it again. As far as I remember the amount was Rs.

150, but the point of the story has yet to be told. Whilst all this was happening the man was lying dead at home having been accidentally killed by a bale of cotton falling upon him when pa.s.sing along some cotton warehouses in one of the streets in Liverpool.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Old view of Bank of Bengal _Johnston & Hoffmann_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Present view of Bank of Bengal]

PART II.

Topographical.

Of all the vast and dramatic changes that have taken place in Calcutta since I first saw it, I think the most striking and outstanding are to be seen in Clive Street and its environs. Looking back and contrasting the past with the present, it all seems so startling and wonderful as to suggest the idea that some genii or magician had descended upon the city and with a touch of his magic wand converted a very ordinary looking street, containing many mean, dilapidated looking dwellings, into a veritable avenue of palaces, and for ever sweeping away blots and eyesores which had existed almost from time immemorial. This transformation more or less applies to Clive Row, the whole of the south side of Clive Ghaut Street stretching round the corner into the south of the Strand, part of the northern portion, Royal Exchange Place, Fairlie Place, the west and south side of Dalhousie Square, and a goodly portion to the east.

WRITERS' BUILDINGS

Occupying as it does the whole of the north side of Dalhousie Square has been changed and altered out of all knowledge and recognition. It was formerly, before Government took it over, a plain white stuccoed building utterly devoid of any pretensions to architectural beauty, and depending mainly for any chance claim to recognition on its immense length. Its blank, straight up and down appearance was barely relieved by several white pillars standing out rather prominently in the centre of the building. It used to be occupied by shops and all sorts of people, merchants, private residents, etc, etc. Some of the rooms on the ground floor were let out as G.o.downs. I lived there myself for some months on my first arrival in Calcutta, and very pleasant and airy quarters I found them. I recollect in the early morning quite a number of small green paroquets used to fly all about the place, and their incessant chatter and calls to each other made it very bright and cheery. My rooms were on the top floor at the extreme west end, next to where the Council chamber is now situated. I also had in addition a very good dining room on the first floor. When the Bengal Government acquired the property they erected an entirely new facade of a totally different design from the original, built the present long range of verandahs and Council chamber which they completed in 1881-1882, and also threw out from the main block from time to time the various annexes that we see ab.u.t.ting on to Lyons Range.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Frontage of Writers'

Buildings from East to West.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by J & H._ Distant view of Writers' Buildings, taken before the Dalhousie Inst.i.tute was built.]

Of course most of us know that Writers' Buildings in the days of Clive and Warren Hastings was the home and resting place of the young civilians on their first arrival in Calcutta, and who were then designated Writers, from which fact there appears little doubt the place derives its name.

One of the very earliest street alterations and improvements that comes to my recollection was in Canning Street, just at the junction of Clive Row, on the s.p.a.ce of ground extending from the latter for some distance to the east, and north as far as the boundary wall of Andrew Yule & Co.'s offices, leaving but a narrow strip of a lane running parallel to the latter and affording access to China Bazaar on the east and beyond. When I first came to Calcutta this s.p.a.ce was occupied by a very mediaeval, ancient, and old-fas.h.i.+oned building having a flagged, paved courtyard in front, surrounded by high brick walls. It divided Canning Street into two distinct sections, effectually obstructing through communication between east and west, except for the narrow strip of pa.s.sage above referred to. The place was then known as it is at the present day as Aloe G.o.down or Potato Bazaar, and was in the occupation of George Henderson & Co. as an office when they were agents of the Borneo Jute Co., afterwards converted into the Barnagore Jute Co. When it was pulled down, it of course opened out free communication between east and west and allowed of the erection of the buildings we see on the north and south of the eastern portion. Whilst on this subject I must confess to a lapse of memory in respect of what Clive Row was like at that particular period. I am half inclined to the belief that it did not exist as an ordinary thoroughfare and had no houses on it; also that more or less it was filled up by the compounds of the various houses situated on the western side of China Bazaar. At the same time, however, it may have given access of very restricted dimensions to the north and west of Aloe G.o.down, but the entrance which we always used was the gateway in Canning Street facing due west.

The next improvement, that I recollect, this time in connection with the building of new business premises, was when Jardine Skinner & Co.

vacated their old offices which were situated on the site of Anderson Wright & Co.'s and Kettlewell Bullen & Co.'s present offices, and removed to their present very handsome quarters which they have for so long occupied. I very well recollect the style of their old place of business and how the exterior strongly reminded me of the cotton warehouses in Liverpool. The interior was a big, rambling, ramshackle kind of a place with but few pretensions to being an office such as we see at the present day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Town Hall, Calcutta.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Site of Black Hole of Calcutta]

The whole was of course eventually pulled down, as was also a similar range of buildings in the south of Clive Ghaut Street on which Macneill & Co.'s offices were built.

It has just occurred to me whilst writing that it might perhaps be a matter of some interest to brokers and others engaged in business at the present time to be informed of the various changes that have taken place during the last forty or fifty years in the location of the offices of many of the firms with whom they have daily intercourse.

Those to whom it does not appeal can skip the next few pages.

To begin with, George Henderson & Co. were the first to remove their offices after their old premises in Aloe G.o.down were dismantled. They first of all migrated to 3, Fairlie Place, and after many years to 25, Mangoe Lane, now in the occupation of Lyall Marshall & Co. and Lovelock & Lewes. They finally settled down in their present offices in Clive Street which they have greatly improved and enlarged.

The next firm on the list to make a change of quarters was Jardine Skinner & Co., to whom I have previously alluded.

Macneill & Co., who had branched off from the firm of Begg Dunlop & Co., had their first offices in the building now in the occupation of the Exchange Gazette Printing Office and Mackenzie Lyall & Co's Furniture Range; afterwards they removed to the Strand at the north-west corner of Canning Street, and then established themselves in their present premises to which they have made considerable additions and improvements.

Kettlewell Bullen & Co. have had many flittings since I first became acquainted with them. My first recollection of them was when they occupied a very old building, 5, New China Bazaar Street, which has been pulled down, and on the site of which have been erected the premises containing the Bristol Grill on the ground floor and several offices on the upper storeys. They then removed to 19 and 22, Strand, then back again to 5, New China Bazaar Street, afterwards to 5, Mission Row, finally settling down in their present quarters which they have greatly improved and largely extended.

Petrocochino Bros, had their offices originally on the site of the Stock and Share Exchange and Ewing & Co.'s premises. They afterwards moved over to Canning Street at the south-east corner of China Bazaar, now occupied by Agelasto & Co., finally settling down in their present quarters in Clive Ghaut Street.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Old Court House Street, looking south.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Bourne & Shepherd_ Government Place, East, at the present day.]

Duncan Brothers & Co., or Playfair Duncan & Co. as they were known in the far off days, were established at 14, Clive Street. From there they changed over to next door in Canning Street which had formerly been occupied by Finlay Muir & Co., and thence, as we all know, to the very handsome block of buildings which they have erected on the site of Gladstone Wyllie & Co.'s old offices.

Ernsthausen & Co., or Ernsthausen & Oesterly as they were originally styled in the days when I first knew them, had their offices in Strand Road to the south of Commercial Buildings, now incorporated with the premises of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co. Subsequently they removed to Royal Exchange Place, where they remained for a number of years, in a building formerly occupied by a very well known firm of Greek merchants of the name of Schilizzi & Co., and now by Prankissen Law & Co. They then went to a building next to Jardine Skinner & Co. to the south, which some time before had been newly erected, but which has since been pulled down to make room for the handsome premises of the Oriental Government Security Life a.s.surance Co., Ltd. They finally came to anchor in their present location.

When Birkmyre Bros first established themselves here under the management of Sir Archy Birkmyre's uncle, with Mr. Patterson as a.s.sistant, who later on took charge of the Hooghly Mills, and finally of Jardine Skinner & Co.'s two mills, they occupied rooms on the first floor of 23 or 24, Strand Road, North. It was here I negotiated with them the very first contract that was ever pa.s.sed in Calcutta for hessian cloth for s.h.i.+pment to America. I forget how long they remained there until they removed to their present offices. I may here mention that they first of all commenced operations with the machinery of an old mill which they had been running at home for some time previously, and which they s.h.i.+pped out stock and block to Calcutta, and erected on the site of the present Hastings Mill.

Graham & Co., on their first arrival in Calcutta, occupied 14, Old Court House Lane, and afterwards removed to 9, Clive Street, which, as we all know, was pulled down a few years ago, and the present palatial premises erected on its site.

F.W. Heilgers & Co., in the far distant past, were known as Wattenbach Heilgers & Co. When I first remember them they had their offices in an old building occupying the site of Balmer Lawrie & Co's handsome new premises, after which they removed to 136, Canning Street, where they remained for a very great number of years, until the Chartered Bank of India, etc., built their present offices when they took over and rented the whole of the second floor.

Bird & Co. were originally located at 40, Strand Road, North, a very ancient and out-of-date looking sort of a place. Their first removal was to 5, Clive Row, where they stayed until 101-1, Clive Street was erected, to which they changed finally establis.h.i.+ng themselves on the first and part of the ground floor of the Chartered Bank Buildings on their completion some nine years ago.

James Finlay & Co., formerly Finlay Muir & Co., started in 15, Clive Row, and stayed there for a number of years, after which they removed to 21, Canning Street, and thence to their present handsome block of buildings which they erected on the site of the old "Thieves Bazaar,"

and a portion of the adjoining ground to the east and south.

William Moran & Co.'s old indigo and silk mart was situated on the site of the present Stamp and Stationery Office, and, as far as I recollect, extended from Church Lane to the Strand. When the ground was required by Government they built premises in Mangoe Lane, now in the occupation of Steuart & Co., the coach-builders, the Pneumatic Dunlop Tyre Co., and various other people. When misfortune overtook them, the property was, I believe, sold, and they removed to 11, Lall Bazaar Street, which has since been dismantled, and they are now in 2, Mangoe Lane, next door but one to their former premises.

h.o.a.re Miller & Co. have only made two removals during their very long residence in Calcutta. First to the office in the Strand which they have lately vacated for their present offices in Fairlie Place, next to the National Bank. They formerly had their offices at the extreme west end of Writers' Buildings, just under my old quarters, and to the west facing the Custom House there was a large open s.p.a.ce adjoining, which, as far as I recollect, they utilised for storing iron, metals and other goods of a like nature, and on which the Council chamber was eventually built.

Ralli Bros. have also made but one change in all the long years they have been established here, from 9, Clive Row to their present offices, which they greatly improved and enlarged on entering into possession.

Anderson Wright & Co. opened their first office at 12, Clive Row, but, as far as I can recollect, they did not stay there very long before they removed to their present place of business.

Andrew Yule & Co. were established for very many years, as most of us already know, at 8, Clive Row, and they also occupied a considerable portion of the adjoining premises extending along Canning Street. They simply stepped across the way and built themselves the splendid new block of buildings which they now occupy.

I think these embrace most of the important changes I remember. I will therefore close this branch of my recollections.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Bathgate and Co's premises, Old Court House Street]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Grosvenor House. Containing Phelps & Co's, and James Monteith & Co's., premises.]

Before finally quitting the subject relating to business matters the following may interest a good many people, more particularly those engaged in the jute trade: When the jute baling industry was first started, and for many years afterwards, it was carried on princ.i.p.ally in the very heart of the city, in Canning Street, and various streets and lanes, branching off and in the neighbourhood, such as Sukea's Lane, Bonfield Lane, Jackson Ghaut Street, and many other back slums, some of which have altogether disappeared to make room for street, and other structural improvements. There were no hydraulic presses in those days for the baling of jute, and the work had to be done by hand screws worked from the upper floor, on the same principle as the capstan of a sailing vessel, by gangs of coolies in old, tumble-down and dilapidated G.o.downs. The jute was compressed into bales weighing 300 lbs. only, and it was not until the advent of the hydraulic presses in the seventies that bales containing first of all 350 and later 400 lbs. were s.h.i.+pped from Calcutta, and the baling was transferred from the town to Chitpore and the other side of the Ca.n.a.l.

To ill.u.s.trate another phase of the vast changes that have taken place, in this instance in the matter of exports, I very well remember F.W.

Heilgers & Co., who happened one year to be the largest exporters, advertising the fact by printing a list of the various s.h.i.+ppers and their s.h.i.+pments, with their own name at the head in larger type than that of the other firms, with a total of 120,000 or 130,000 bales!!!

In comparison with this, and just to contrast it with what was then considered a large export for one individual firm, I may mention that just before the present war Ralli Bros, exported 1,100,000 bales, Becker Grey & Co., 400,000 bales, Ernsthausen & Co, 330,000 bales, R.

Steel & Co. 240,000 bales, and James Duffus & Co. 220,000 bales.