text:
Wikisource:Scriptorium/Archives/2024-02

Script doesn't load.

 * This section was archived on a request by: ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 13:50, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Can someone please take a look at :- https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:ShakespeareFan00/common.js and explain why InductiveLoad's Minipane script has decided to stop working for me, it doesn't seem to display in the sidebar anymore? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 09:44, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

 * The relevant script being - User:Inductiveload/MiniPane.js ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 09:58, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
 * It works for me. Xover (talk) 11:14, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Please screenshot the list of gdagets you have installed, and link your Common.js., because when I disabled everything apart from that script it still didn't load properly. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:16, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
 * - That it works for you suggests some very specific interaction, but I tried switching off various gadgets and it STILL didn't work. Perhaps YOU can take a look at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:ShakespeareFan00/common.js and preferences and tell me what broke (or what I am doing incorrectly), because I am fed up running around after erratic usablity issues! ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 11:39, 1 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hmm.. I've gone through switching off and on various add-ons in Firefos, and it all works again, so I'm not sure what 'glitched'. Minipane needs porting over to OOUI anyway (it's still using jquery), and it would be nice if and the functions of jump to file were more closely intergrated into Proofread page more directly, as happened with the OCR tools earlier. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 12:11, 1 February 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-06
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The mobile site history pages now use the same HTML as the desktop history pages. If you hear of any problems relating to mobile history usage please point them to the phabricator task.
 * On most wikis, admins can now block users from making specific actions. These actions are: uploading files, creating new pages, moving (renaming) pages, and sending thanks. The goal of this feature is to allow admins to apply blocks that are adequate to the blocked users' activity. Learn more about "action blocks".

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).
 * Talk pages permalinks that included diacritics and non-Latin script were malfunctioning. This issue is fixed.

Future changes
 * 24 Wikipedias with Reference Tooltips as a default gadget are encouraged to remove that default flag. This would make Reference Previews the new default for reference popups, leading to a more consistent experience across wikis. For 46 Wikipedias with less than 4 interface admins, the change is already scheduled for mid-February, unless there are concerns. The older Reference Tooltips gadget will still remain usable and will override this feature, if it is available on your wiki and you have enabled it in your settings.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 19:22, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

Rendering of 'blackletter' text
For awareness, while validating this page Page:The_Economist_1843-08-_Vol_1_Preliminary_Number_(IA_sim_economist_1843-08_1_preliminary-number).pdf/1 using Firefox, I thought there were typos in the line 'And Banker's Gazette', as both the 'A' and 'k' did not look right in blackletter. However, the text is correct. When viewing the same page in Edge, the blackletter text renders correctly. Chrisguise (talk) 08:10, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Chrisguise: Template:Blackletter mode 4 gets the s and the k. 'k?--RaboKarbakian (talk) 11:50, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fix. I've not previously had any problems with the default mode. Chrisguise (talk) 12:05, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

Chappaquiddick
What is the copyright position of a speech like this ? -- Beardo (talk) 02:12, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

 * @Beardo: Personally I would consider this speech to be primarily a political speech (it concerns the then-Senator's resignation and whether he should seek reelection, and addresses these questions to the voters), and as such is outside the scope of PD-USGov. This means normal copyright rules apply, and the issue of copyright status hinges on when it was first subject to general publication with the author's consent (note that the speech was just a performance, not a publication, so you'll need to look for, typically, a book form publication or a newspaper article bylined by Kennedy rather than reported by the newspaper's staff). If that publication was without copyright notice, or if whatever work it was did not have its copyright renewed, then it is PD-US-no notice or PD-US-no renewal, otherwise it's in pub. +95 copyright (or if unpublished in pma. 70 copyright). Xover (talk) 09:05, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Making WS:Annotations official policy
Please see the discussion on this subject below at —Beleg Tâl (talk) 02:05, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Template:M-larger
What is this template for? --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:28, 5 February 2024 (UTC)

 * I'm confused as to what's confusing: it makes text that is 110% the font size of the previous text. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:45, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Under the Usage heading, it merely says: "This template simplifies formatting text that is M-larger" without explaining what that means. --EncycloPetey (talk) 17:50, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Sure, but Template:M-larger. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:58, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah! Instead of explaining the usage in the Usage section, its explanation was placed much further down the page, buried in a table explaining multiple templates in relation to each other. --EncycloPetey (talk) 18:10, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Our current size classes are a deliberate standardisation of text sizes, and new sizes should not be added without a policy-level discussion. Arbitrary other sizes can be achieved—when there is some exceptional need to deviate—using font-size (alias fs). Xover (talk) 09:10, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * It seems m-larger was added to this table in July. I had never heard of the template prior to seeing it used recently.  Was there a discussion to add that template as standard? --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:43, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Copyright status check..
IS this PD-US-Gov - https://archive.org/details/coloruniversalla440kell/mode/1up It seems to contain reprints of earlier material from copyright journals. If it is PD-US-Gov ( as a NIST/NBS published) work can someone please put it on commons? (Or at the very least identify the portions that can be.) ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 10:19, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Yes, this is just a repackaging of two earlier works, which would presumably have copyright protections and it is not clear if/when/how/that they were put into the public domain. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:39, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Seems fine to me; it's a 1976 work published without copyright notice, with permission of the author (see introduction). For the two underlying works, "THE ISCC-NBS METHOD OF DESIGNATING COLORS AND A DICTIONARY OF COLOR NAMES, by Kenneth L. Kelly and Deane B. Judd, NBS Circular 553, Nov. 1, 1955" is an NBS Circular, and in this context NBS obviously means the National Bureau of Standards, the same federal government body that's publishing this book, and "A UNIVERSAL COLOR LANGUAGE, by Kenneth L. Kelly, Color Engineering 3, 16 (March- April 1965)" is solely authored by the author of the introduction, so it had his permission. https://tsapps.nist.gov/srmext/certificates/archives/2106.pdf is a copy of the original article with a copyright notice from Color Engineering's publisher. I believe it to be the work of a US government official in the course of their job, and thus not eligible for copyright, but that part could be a concern. The other work is clearly PD-USGov/PD-US-no notice, IMO, and is not a problem.--Prosfilaes (talk) 17:04, 9 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Circular 533 is something to find :) - The only difference here is that the 1976 printing might have had eratta corrected? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 17:14, 9 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Other works on Colorimetry:
 * Ridgway, Robert, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, Washington D.C (1912)
 * D.H. Hamly, The ridgway Color Standards with a Munsell Notation Key, J.Opt. Soc. America, 39, 592(1949)
 * Colors for Moldeld Urea Plastics, Commercial Standard CS147-47, U.S Department of Commerce, (1947)
 * Colors for Polysterene Plastics, Commercial Standard CS156-49, U.S Department of Commerce, (1949)
 * Federal Specifcation TT-C-595, Colors : Ready Mixed Paints. Issued: 1951 (It became FS 595?)
 * Judd, D.B. The 1931 I.C.I Standard Observer and Coordinate System for Colorimetry, Journal of the Optical Society of America 23,359 (1933)
 * Judd, D.B and Kelly, K.L., Method of Designating Colors, Journal of Research, NBS 23,355 (1939) RP1239
 * Kelly, K.L., Central Notations for the Revised ISCC, NBS 61, 427 (1958); RP 2911
 * Kelly. K.L., Coordinated color identifications for Industry, NBS TN152 (Nov. 1962)
 * Kelly. K.L., and Judd, D.B. The ISCC-NBS Method of Designating Colors and a Dictionary of Color Names. NBS Circular 533. Nov 1. 1955
 * ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 18:51, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

 * The original of “A Universal Color Language” can be found here on IA. Color Engineering is a privately published periodical, “© Kinelow Publishing Company, Inc., 1965.” There is no copyright notice on Kelly’s article, nor on any other article. Copyrights on issues of periodicals apply to the issue itself (for the proprietor of the periodical) and to the articles printed within (for the authors of the articles). It’s not clear whether Kelly held on to his copyright, or assigned it to Kinelow so as to have the article published. At the end of the article, there is a short description of Kelly’s professional career, highlighting his work with the National Bureau of Standards, in addition to three papers co-authored with Dr. Judd, “Method of Designating Colors,” “ISCC-NBS Method of Designating Colors and a Dictionary of Color Names,” and “Central Notations for the Revised ISCC-NBS Color-Name Blocks.” In addition, this description does not make any mention of private work (except work done collaboratively, in which he was the Federal part). As the original article was published in an issue of a periodical with a copyright notice, if the article was done separately from his work, than the copyright on that work would continue through the new (combined) publication, even though the modifications would be . On balance, though, I would say the article is , despite the non-government publication. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 19:28, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

longdash not transcluding properly
See A_Chambermaid's_Diary on p.7, where the longdash inside italics is not transcluding properly, neither does it it look correct in the Page namespace. --EncycloPetey (talk) 23:26, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Nevermind. I found the problem. --EncycloPetey (talk) 23:29, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Style sheet per book
One often puts energy into shaping each heading or image caption to look a bit like the printed typography. An idea that has struck me is that this could be done with a CSS style sheet per book. In this book, all chapter headings are written in ALL CAPS, section headings in small caps, and image captions in cursive. Then you could just run away with ==h2== and ===h3=== and <img> tags and all would be fine. Has anybody experimented with this? Would it work with transclusions under the ProofreadPage extension? LA2 (talk) 21:02, 6 February 2024 (UTC)

 * @LA2: See Help:Page styles. But don't use MediaWiki default heading and image caption syntax for these. MediaWiki and the skin "owns" these and can change their styling at any time (in addition to heavily styling them in the current style sheets). Use our normal Wikisource-specific formatting templates and then override their styles using page styles. For chapter headings and subheadings I am working on h and sh as a simple and consistent way to handle most (think 80/20) such constructs. They add very simple default styling, but are designed to be enriched or overridden by Page styles. And I plan to make more such templates as I come across other good candidates for standardised handling (plates and image captions may be one such). They're currently undocumented while I test them out in my own proofreading projects to get experience with where they work well and where they need tweaks, but I'm happy to help if you want to try experimenting with them in your proofreading projects. Xover (talk) 09:20, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Xover I think they cam be merged with Pseudoheading and relatives. Mpaa (talk) 20:40, 11 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Mpaa: Eventually, yes. Right now they're deliberately separate because we're exploring the same ideas from slightly different angles. Xover (talk) 06:05, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Announcing the results of the UCoC Coordinating Committee Charter ratification vote

 * You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Dear all,

Thank you everyone for following the progress of the Universal Code of Conduct. I am writing to you today to announce the outcome of the ratification vote on the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee Charter. 1746 contributors voted in this ratification vote with 1249 voters supporting the Charter and 420 voters not. The ratification vote process allowed for voters to provide comments about the Charter.

A report of voting statistics and a summary of voter comments will be published on Meta-wiki in the coming weeks.

Please look forward to hearing about the next steps soon.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF) 18:24, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-07
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The WDQS Graph Split experiment is working and loaded onto 3 test servers. The team in charge is testing the split's impact and requires feedback from WDQS users through the UI or programmatically in different channels. Users' feedback will validate the impact of various use cases and workflows around the Wikidata Query service.

Problems
 * There was a bug that affected the appearance of visited links when using mobile device to access wiki sites. It made the links appear black; this issue is fixed.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).
 * Octicons-tools.svg As work continues on the grid engine deprecation, tools on the grid engine will be stopped starting on February 14th, 2024. If you have tools actively migrating you can ask for an extension so they are not stopped.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 05:48, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

Moving essays between namespaces
After receiving a talk I would like to strongly oppose an unilateral move to userfy the essay for several reasons: Hopefully this matter will be peacefully solved.--Jusjih (talk) 02:37, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * 1) The move lacked prior discussion.
 * 2) The move would discourage faithful improvement by others.
 * 3) Jimbo Wales, not me, originated the post against attacks on userpages, which should document wmf:Policy:Terms_of_Use.
 * 4) Template:Blanked userspace page is further documented.

 * @Jusjih: You think this issue is very important due to a personal bad experience with a Chinese project that permitted one such page aimed at you, but using user pages for attacks on other contributors is an absolute non-issue on enWS. To the degree it ever occurs (which I don't recall ever seeing) the admins will deal with it under existing policy (and the UCoC, which requires us to deal with such pages even if there was no local policy). Xover (talk) 07:37, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I also do not see which problem present in Wikisource either currently or in the past you are trying to address and what is the point of having such an essay in the Wikisource namespace. I am very sorry if you were a subject of an attack somewhere else, in the past I experienced it too, so I know what it is like and you have all my sympathy, but I do not see how it could help when you import the essay to an unrelated project. Essays in the Wikisource namespace should address Wikisource issues only. According to Essays, Wikisource essays are general-interest essays while User essays are specific or minority-interest essays... The text you imported really does not seem to be connected with anything we generally feel as needed to be solved here, as far as I know there has never been such a problem since I started contributing here, and so it falls under the category of user essays (if needed here at all). --Jan Kameníček (talk) 10:07, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I don't see any issue with having this essay, or any other relevant essay that a contributor wishes to write, present in WS space. I have no problem moving this one back to WS space where it belongs.
 * Personally, it doesn't matter to me what space the essay is placed in. However, I think that a discussion should have been had before moving it, i.e. WS:S should have been consulted before moving from WS to User space, rather than before returning it from User space back to WS space. —Beleg Tâl (talk) 16:58, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * with an edit in the essay in question gave me permission in private emails to move it into the user subpage. If anyone has any issues, please let the latest host of the essay to follow up. Hopefully it will please everyone peacefully. :-)--Jusjih (talk) 03:29, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Automatically empty "Without text" pages:
I came across this gadget today and enabled it in my preferences. I've tried it on a number of blank pages but it doesn't seem to work. The examples I've tried only had text in the main box but it wasn't cleared before the page saved. Chrisguise (talk) 00:50, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

 * @Chrisguise: There's something very weird going on with that Gadget, in that sometimes it completely fails to load for no obvious reason. Usually it loads if you then reload the page, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the Gadget. I'm looking into it, but I'm having trouble figuring out where to start looking. Xover (talk) 08:45, 7 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Chrisguise: I think I found the problem. It should work now. Please let me know how it works for you. Xover (talk) 11:26, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi. It seems to work in normal 'create' and 'edit' modes, clearing all content from the main body, header and footer. It doesn't seem to work when I tried it with the 'edit pages in sequence' gadget. Thanks. Chrisguise (talk) 17:29, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Approximate birth and death categories
When there is just an approximate date of birth or death in Wikidata, the software tries to categorize the author into non-existing categories like category:C. 1390 births, see e. g. Author:Petr Chelčický. I am not sure whether such categories should be founded. Would it be possible to change it so that the authors are categorized directly into category:1390 births? -- Jan Kameníček (talk) 22:24, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah, only now I have noticed that the author is categorized into both categories. So is the approximate date category necessary? Would it be possible to remove such categorization, leaving only e. g. category:1390 births? --Jan Kameníček (talk) 22:27, 18 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks for catching this! I've updated Module:Author to remove the inappropriate categories. —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 23:19, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Discourse Concerning the Natation of Bodies
This was just listed as "new". In researching the supporting scan, I discovered that the Commons file simply lists "Internet Archive" as the source, without any specifics. I cannot find the scan there. Can anyone else please locate the source of the scan at Commons? --EncycloPetey (talk) 20:28, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Possibly extracted from this facsimile? MarkLSteadman (talk) 01:38, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-08
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * If you have the "" option enabled, edits by bot accounts no longer trigger notification emails. Previously, only minor edits would not trigger the notification emails.
 * There are changes to how user and site scripts load for Vector 2022 on specific wikis. The changes impacted the following Wikis: all projects with Vector legacy as the default skin, Wikivoyage, and Wikibooks. Other wikis will be affected over the course of the next three months. Gadgets are not impacted. If you have been affected or want to minimize the impact on your project, see  this ticket. Please coordinate and take action proactively.
 * Newly auto-created accounts (the accounts you get when you visit a new wiki) now have the same local notification preferences as users who freshly register on that wiki. It is effected in four notification types listed in the task's description.
 * The maximum file size when using Upload Wizard is now 5 GiB.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).

 * Octicons-tools.svg Selected tools on the grid engine have been stopped as we prepare to shut down the grid on March 14th, 2024. The tool's code and data have not been deleted. If you are a maintainer and you want your tool re-enabled reach out to the team. Only tools that have asked for extension are still running on the grid.
 * The CSS  property can now be used in HTML  attributes in wikitext.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 15:36, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Changes to loading user scripts in Vector and Vector 2022
As announced in Tech News 2024-08 there are changes coming to how your vector.js / vector.css and vector-2022.js / vector-2022.css are loaded. Currently, if you are using the Vector 2022 skin, both the  and   variants are loaded. Starting at some point in the near future (date has not been set yet, but the original ambition was to get it done by the end of 2023 so we're on borrowed time) the Vector 2022 skin will only load the  variants.

If you are using the Vector 2022 skin (not on by default, so you must have explicitly turned it on) you will need to migrate the code in your vector.js / vector.css to vector-2022.js / vector-2022.css. You should not do this until the change goes live or the same code will be loaded twice with unpredictable results (unpredictable, but it's very likely your scripts will break in some way).

Once some of the site-wide code affected by this change has been migrated it is likely we will ask for an expedited transition, in which case it will be announced here that it has happened. If that plan doesn't pan out you will have to keep watch for your old scripts to stop getting loaded and migrate then, but we may not be able to announce a specific date when it happens (it depends on upstream communication about the change). In either case it is likely that once the change has been implemented (for all sites, not just enWS) there will be a notice about it in a future Tech News.

If you are using any other skin but Vector 2022 (including original Vector aka. Vector 2010) you should not be affected by this and there is no action needed on your part.

If you have questions or need help migrating your vector.js / vector.css please feel free to post in this thread. --Xover (talk) 13:07, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

''Nevermind. This information turns out to be obsolete. Updated information will follow shortly.'' --Xover (talk) 14:30, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Second attempt: As announced (extremely subtly through the use of the past tense) in Tech News 2024-08, changes have already been made to how your vector.js / vector.css and vector-2022.js / vector-2022.css are loaded. Previously, if you were using the Vector 2022 skin, both the  and   variants were loaded. Starting at some point in the recent past (I don't have the exact date) the Vector 2022 skin will only load the  variants.

If you are using the Vector 2022 skin (not on by default, so you must have explicitly turned it on) you will need to migrate the code in your vector.js / vector.css to vector-2022.js / vector-2022.css or they will not be loaded. There are significant changes to to the skin in Vector 2022 so there is no guarantee that your old scripts will work in the new skin without modifications.

If you are using any other skin but Vector 2022 (including original Vector aka. Vector 2010) you should not be affected by this and there is no action needed on your part.

If you have questions or need help migrating your vector.js / vector.css please feel free to post in this thread. --Xover (talk) 14:36, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Invitation to join February Wikisource Community Meeting
Hello fellow Wikisource enthusiasts!

We are the hosting this month’s Wikisource Community meeting on 24 February 2024, 7 AM UTC (check your local time).

The meeting agenda will be divided into two halves. The first half of the meeting will focus on non-technical updates, including discussions about events, conferences, proofread-a-thons, and collaborations. The second half will delve into technical updates and conversations, addressing major challenges faced by Wikisource communities, similar to our previous Community meetings.

If you are interested in joining the meeting, kindly leave a message on klawal-ctr@wikimedia.org and we will add you to the calendar invite.

Meanwhile, feel free to check out the page on Meta-wiki and suggest any other topics for the agenda.

Regards KLawal-WMF, Sam Wilson (WMF), and Satdeep Gill (WMF)

Sent using MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Annotations
I'd like to have a straw poll, to resolve the community's stance without discussion on whether or not WS:ANN should be considered official WS policy. This is merely a fact-finding poll, to determine whether or not the community supports this page as policy. This is not intended to be a discussion, as its associated Talk page already has more than enough of that. If largely supported, then I'll start some kind of official !vote; if opinion is divided or against, then at least we'll know, and discovering that is the sole purpose of this poll. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:17, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * ---EncycloPetey (talk) 22:17, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * --Jan Kameníček (talk) 22:40, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Support. I don’t see any indication (in the header, anyway) that this is not official, and I was always led to that page when I asked about annotations. TE(æ)A,ea. (talk) 23:26, 3 February 2024 (UTC)
 * --Jusjih (talk) 02:37, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * --Xover (talk) 06:55, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

 * —Beleg Tâl (talk) 16:56, 4 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression that the policy was made official in 2021 as per this edit and the corresponding discussion. Was that not the case? Arcorann (talk) 10:03, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Making it policy
Rather than asking everyone to support a second time, since the support seems to be unanimous, I'm going to ask whether there are any objections serious enough to prevent this page from becoming policy. Keep in mind that it is possible to change policy, so if the objection can be corrected with a discussion afterwards, please consider that option as well. This page seems to be considered policy already, but I'll leave this open for at least a week before adding the official tags and such, in case there are serious objections. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:36, 8 February 2024 (UTC)

Proceeding now with the official action to mark it as policy, based on unanimous support. --EncycloPetey (talk) 19:17, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Awesome! —Beleg Âlt BT (talk) 19:39, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

Combine the PD-US and the PD-US-no-renewal templates
There are still many, many authors who have both works that fit into the scope of the PD-US template and those fit into the scope of the PD-US-no-renewal template. These templates, when used both on the same page, occupy a plenty of space which both has an inelegant appearance and contains some redundant text. I suggest making the third template (for example, PD-US-expire-no-renewal) that combines the content of both templates and can be used on pages of such authors (like Lovecraft or Frank Owen) -- N o n e x y st d 14:35, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I definitely agree with the sentiment here, but I'd like to take it a step further and just take the public-domain reasons off of author pages altogether. In other words, perhaps we should just have a template that says something like "This author has works that are in the public domain." (in the usual more formal terms of course)
 * The part where tagging specific public-domain reasons is actually important is in the individual works themselves. Author pages exist effectively as directories for finding these works, and since we're starting to delve into territory where keeping up with the copyright statuses of all the works within these "directories" is complex and therefore repetitive and redundant, we should just remove that altogether.
 * This is just another bit of constant maintenance that we don't need. SnowyCinema (talk) 14:45, 17 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, let's just drop hyper-specific templates like PD-US-no notice and PD-US-no renewal from Author: pages. Author's works are either generally in the public domain, some are in the public domain, some are compatibly licensed, or they are generally still in copyright. More nuance and detail is just noise there (an explanation can go on the talk page if needed; eg. like for Tolstoï and the translations, or the hyper-complicated situation for Lovecraft). Xover (talk) 17:43, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

If we're going to make an author-specific licensing template, the name of the template should make it clear that the template is for use on Author pages, and no resemble the templates we use on works, in order to reduce the likelihood of confusion. --EncycloPetey (talk) 18:33, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

I can see dropping some of the hyper-specific templates, but I don't think we should toss out all of the details. We should have separate templates for authors whose works are generally all in the PD (died 95 years ago), authors who have some works expired due to age, and US authors who may have some works not renewed or no notice. I think it's important to say whether works are generally in the public domain, or if there's more elaborate checking needed.--Prosfilaes (talk) 16:13, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Just want to say I'm pleased to see this discussion going. Previously I've felt that copyright banners on Author: pages were extraneous and sometimes misleading, but these kinds of refinements would make a big difference. Kudos all. -Pete (talk) 17:54, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

 * It is not only author pages where both PD-US and PD-US-no-renewal may appear, it can happen with some periodical too, see e.g. The World (newspaper). Besides creating a combined template, we could also solve it in a way similar to Translation license. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 19:12, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

New Gadget: MoreMenu
There's a new Gadget available in your preferences: MoreMenu.

This should be familiar for enWP contributors where it's been available for years. The basic gist is that it adds a new dropdown menu next to the search field (in Vector) with useful links for pages (the "Page" menu) and, on user pages, about the user (the "User" menu). If you have particular rights you may see extra links specific to those user rights (e.g. admins get a few extra links that require administrator rights to see or use).

The Gadget is currently non-default so you need to explicitly turn it on to use it, but going by experience from other projects this is so useful that we'll probably want to turn it on by default once we're sure it doesn't cause any problems here. Xover (talk) 10:53, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

British patents
There is a handful of patents which have been placed on pages of the form GB1893 15805 but with header title "Great Britain patent 15805". I think that these pages should be moved to something clearer, and I think that the mention of Great Britain is incorrect - British or UK. I suggest that the example link should go to "British patent no. 15805", or something like that, and the others moved similarly. Do people agree ? -- Beardo (talk) 02:25, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Note that GB is the official patent country code: https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/country-codes-wipo-st3-table. And that  is the id at espacent: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DGB189315805A MarkLSteadman (talk) 03:06, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Note that: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DGB189415805A is also 15805, https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DGB189515805A is also 15805, https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search?q=pn%3DGB2361408A is also GB 15805. You will probably need the date in the title at some point, e.g having a versions page once duplicates start appearing. Another option is the patent title "Improvements in or connected with Chest Expanding Braces or Straps." 03:21, 24 February 2024 (UTC) MarkLSteadman (talk) 03:21, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks. That does seem to imply that the actual patent number includes the year at the start.
 * And whilst GB might be the reference, "Great Britain" is not correct. -- Beardo (talk) 06:02, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

Index:Cumhadh do dh' iarla Earraghaidhail.pdf
One of the small books from the Scottish national archive - but this one is not in English. Can it be moved to the Gaelic part of wikisource ? -- Beardo (talk) 06:04, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

What does it take to have RELIABLE tools?
Index:NBS_Circular_553.djvu IA Upload- but the OCR is out by one. What does it take to have tools that can RELIABLY do what they claim to? ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 23:18, 9 February 2024 (UTC)
 * What is more, this bug is really old, see founded in 1918! I sometimes come across this problem too, so I ignore the original (shifted) OCR and simply overwrite it using our OCR tools. --Jan Kameníček (talk) 00:11, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I would love to see this bug fixed! In the meantime, however, the folks at Scan lab are very helpful in fixing the broken OCR generated by IA-Upload. —Beleg Âlt BT (talk) 14:22, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Size of edit window in Page: namespace..
I don't know what changed but the size of edit window in proofread page is now too small to be reasonably useable. Please change it back to the previous setting. Thanks. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 22:08, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

 * If it helps, in my CSS file I figured out how to control the width of the #textbox1 of the proofread page. Specifying width doesn't work, but margins or padding does.  — ineuw (talk) 23:35, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

 * i find timeless skin can get full width on screen by zooming in. yrmv. --Slowking4 ‽ digitaleffie's ghost 01:18, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Welcome to endless art of managing one's proofreading page.  — ineuw (talk) 01:59, 25 February 2024 (UTC)

 * such is the open source paradise. i tend to stay away from custom css and java tools, as they are prone to break, interact poorly, and are hard to trouble shoot. i expect tools to break as there is little tool management and support. unsupported skins will eventually break also, but timeless is quite an improvement over flat sidebar gadget, and the skin that does flat sidebar. the wiki software changes are wikipedia focused with many unintended consequences on other projects. the configuration labor is a barrier to entry, making it harder to onboard newbies. --Slowking4 ‽ digitaleffie's ghost 15:12, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-09
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * The mobile visual editor is now the default editor for users who never edited before, at a small group of wikis. Research  shows that users using this editor are slightly more successful publishing the edits they started, and slightly less successful publishing non-reverted edits. Users who defined the wikitext editor as their default on desktop will get the wikitext editor on mobile for their first edit on mobile as well.
 * Octicons-tools.svg The mw.config value  now only contains groups that are active in the wiki. Scripts no longer have to check whether the group is active on the wiki via an API request. A code example of the above is: .

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).

Future changes Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
 * The right to change edit tags ( ) will be removed from users in Wikimedia sites, keeping it by default for admins and bots only. Your community can ask to retain the old configuration on your wiki before this change happens. Please indicate in this ticket to keep it for your community before the end of March 2024.

MediaWiki message delivery 19:23, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Sister projects:
When did Sister_projects start importing all the main_subject= from Wikidata? RAN (talk) 20:25, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

 * At approximately 12:31 (UTC) on 12 April 2021. Xover (talk) 21:13, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

 * I see by deprecating the main_subject at Wikidata I can suppress their appearance here. If there is a news article about a person getting married, I don't think we need to link to the Wikipedia article on wedding, just the person. --RAN (talk) 22:56, 27 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Could you link to an example of this? -Pete (talk) 17:45, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

 * You can see at Oakland Tribune/1945/06/08/Cited Pilot Home From Italy Is Wed, where I have not yet deprecated "wedding" at Wikidata and it links to the Wikipedia article. The problem is that I overstuff search terms at Wikidata so I can find the article in a Google search, when it should be used only for main_subject. --RAN (talk) 18:17, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
 * I solved the problem, the solution appears to be the promote the main search term, rather than deprecate the minor ones. I will do that moving forward. --RAN (talk) 19:34, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

New beta Gadget: Automatically empty Without text pages
There's a new Gadget available in the "Beta" section of your preferences: Automatically empty Without text pages.

This is a really simple little Gadget that watches the page status radio buttons in the Page: namespace and when you click the "Without text" one it empties out any stray automatic headers and footers as well as OCR text that may be in the page. It also saves away the text that was there so that if you click it by mistake you can just click any other pages status radio button to get the contents back.

The Gadget has been available for a while but was plagued by a "mystery bug" that made it fail to do anything most of the time. This problem should now be fixed (/me crosses fingers) and some wider testing would be useful. In my own experience this functionality is so useful that it's a no-brainer to make it default for all users, but it started life as my personal user script and hasn't had sufficient testing yet (feedback on this if you have an opinion would be welcome). Xover (talk) 11:02, 24 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Nice! You're right it really should be default feature. Jpez (talk) 06:02, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Wikidata questions
There are a few points that don't seem to be covered in Wikidata: (Also once these get resolved can we update the page?) Arcorann (talk) 09:58, 23 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Work and edition items: how does this work when there's only one version? What do we do with the links?
 * How do we handle periodicals and issues of periodicals?
 * The work is more generic than editions. Works have different "outside information" than editions, which helps to keep the two separate.  Works are instances of "literary work" or "work of science". Works might have a publisher, but be sure to only put the publisher of the first edition on it.  Editions often have different publishers.  A work should never have a property pointing at a scan or the gutenberg publication of the same or of an edition in the local library.  Each of those would be an instance of "version, translation or edition".  The edition gets the url to the wikisource index and the work gets the Main space link.  It doesn't matter if there is only one edition.  Editions link to the work via "edition of" and works link back to the edition via "Edition or translation of".  Everything here that is in quotes has a property number at wikidata, but a few characters typed into the property area at wikidata will usually pull up the property you are looking for, if you are not a machine.

 * Magazines and journals are a mess of the same thing. Each freaking issue getting a work and at least one edition.  Each issue reaching to its volume and each volume reaching to its first data, that states the beginning publication date, and the end date.  Many of the journals have this information but it is under the "inception" property as is the wikipedia way.  Adding publication date information makes those records useful for wikisource.

 * About adding this to the help. There are a million ways to say something but nothing works quite as well as experience.  A very very helpful thing for me in figuring this out was to make the data and the Book template work on the scan, the scan being the edition that is used here.  And then making the category at the commons and putting the link to that on the Work data.  The book template has places for many things that should be found as edition properties at wikidata.  The category needs the place of first publication, and the year  and   or New York City or Boston .  Those categories are about the licence, at least the year and country.  The later, I guess, being interesting.  Well, the Book template and getting everything installed at commons was very helpful to me in working through the wikidata that gets connected to it.  It might help you also.--RaboKarbakian (talk) 15:12, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

 * As Rabo points out, periodicals are a real morass of challenges from a data perspective, and Wikisource has to deal with many of the same issues. I'm not sure which are bothering you at the moment, but some that really bug me are:
 * What constitutes a distinct periodical? Are The Herald, The Weekly Herald, The Sunday Herald, The Herald Town & Country Monthly Insert, The Springfield Herald, and the Metro County Herald different names of the same publication, or five separate publications? How about the Times-Herald, formed after a merger? Other databases/authority controls such as the U.S. Library of Congress seem to err in the direction of making a separate data record for each title variant, but there are often important qualities of a publication that span many names (same publisher, same status as "only paper in town with unique social/political influence," etc.) that are harder to capture that way. The specifics of every publication's unique history are an important factor, and coming up with a general rule that is workable and accurate seems impossible. The Overland Monthly is a magazine that contends with these issues; I put several different name variants all on one Wikisource page, which I think is the least-bad approach and probably the most useful to a reader (but maybe not a data-oriented researcher), but still not very satisfying.
 * (oops, I left out the main point I was after: the audience and purpose of Wikidata might lead to different approaches for Wikidata vs. Wikisource vs. Wikipedia, but even that is an issue, because how do you link them? Especially with publications with numerous name changes, some innocuous and some substantive... -Pete (talk) 19:35, 23 February 2024 (UTC) )
 * Our templates are largely designed with books in mind. There's no header template to capture an overall publication (such as year started/year ended, founder, predecessor, successor), and no header template for individual volumes or issues (month, day of month, etc.) "Year" as the only available template parameter in header does not fit well with periodicals
 * With some periodicals, especially newspapers, it's unclear the best framework for more granular pages. Below the top level, do we organize by year or volume number? Sometimes volumes span two years, other times there are two volumes per year, so it's a fundamental question. Below that, do you go with "/12 May 1902/" or "/1902/May/12" or something in between? Even with daily naming, what about a newspaper with separate morning and evening editions?
 * Copyright status is supposed to be asserted at the top level page, but this can result in weird collections of templates that are messy and not very informative without careful reading. See The Overland Monthly for an example of this too.
 * Some of this is addressable by developing more bespoke templates here. If you're interested in working with me on that, I'd suggest Wikisource talk:Periodical guidelines as a place to dig into what's needed and develop specs/proposals.
 * Also, if you haven't, I'd suggest consulting periodical-related WikiProjects on other projects, such as wikidata:Wikidata:WikiProject Periodicals and w:en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Newspapers. -Pete (talk) 19:21, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

 * Arcorann this should be the best help for publications at wikidata: wikidata:Wikidata:WikiProject_Books They have not updated about oclc classify being superceded, but, these tables are really good.--RaboKarbakian (talk) 15:20, 24 February 2024 (UTC)
 * What about Wikisource links on Wikidata? In particular, if we have only one edition for a work (so no versions page), and we link the work to the edition page, does the work entry just not get a Wikisource link? Arcorann (talk) 09:31, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Arcorann: Link the Main page (transcluded work) to the "work" and there is a property P1957 "Wikisource index page URL" that goes with the scan edition.--RaboKarbakian (talk) 16:18, 28 February 2024 (UTC)
 * So to confirm, both the work page and edition page on Wikidata have the same link, with the link on the work page on Wikidata being changed when a versions page is made? Arcorann (talk) 00:56, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
 * No. The edition of a work (housed at Wikisource) goes on the data item for that edition, with information and links for that edition.  The "work" data item is the generic information such as original date of writing, original language, and links to the work data records at VIAF and the Library of Congress as well as for other databases.  Any information that is specific to a particular publication should go on a data item for that particular edition/publication.  This includes the first edition of a work, which should also have a data item for it.  This mirrors the format used internationally for major library databases: one data item for the generic information, separate data items for each edition of that work that has been published.  It must be done that way so that we can record all data specific to the edition such as publisher, publication date, location of scans, and holdings of that edition in libraries.  The edition data item gets crosslinked to the work data item using P747 (has edition or translation) from the work and P629 (edition or translation of) from the edition. What RaboKarbakian has told you is the nonstandard maverick approach he uses, and not the recommendations followed by everyone else.
 * Periodicals are sometimes handled differently, because they do not have multiple editions, though some periodicals now have print editions and electronic editions of articles, but what I've described is true for most editions of other kinds of things. --EncycloPetey (talk) 01:31, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
 * OK, we all agree that the edition page on WD and the work page on WS should be linked. If a versions page exists on WS then it should be linked to the work page on WD; that much is clear. What I'm still confused about is what (if anything) should be linked to the work page on WD if no versions page exists on WS. Arcorann (talk) 08:10, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

Template:Beleg Tâl's sidenotes
There are too many sidenote templates on this website, so I've decided to add yet another :D

It is my hope and belief, that someday English Wikisource will have a standard general-purpose approach to sidenotes. At that time, this template should be replaced with the adopted standard template.

In the meantime, you can use this template as a placeholder to indicate a sidenote that should be standardized once a standard has been created. The actual formatting of the sidenotes in the meantime may vary. (Currently it uses right sidenote.) —Beleg Âlt BT (talk) 14:17, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

 * I was originally going to call this template Template:Generic sidenote, but I decided to give it a name that clearly indicated that it shouldn't be treated as an alternative permanent approach to sidenotes —Beleg Âlt BT (talk) 14:18, 26 February 2024 (UTC)
 * @Beleg Tâl: I feel your pain, but I think it is a very bad idea to put a username in any page name outside User: space, I think it's a very bad idea to make temporary placeholder templates, and I think it is a very bad idea to react to a proliferation on half-broken templates by adding yet another deliberately half-broken template.I might suggest a more productive channel for that frustration is collecting a structured description of use cases along with problems with existing templates somewhere. It is conceivable that we'll be able to "solve" (fsvo) this eventually, but it will at very least require that the issue works its way up to the top of someone's list of annoyances, and for that a structured description of the use cases and problems will be essential. Xover (talk) 09:43, 27 March 2024 (UTC)
 * As it happens, in this case there is no pain or frustration. I created a formatting-agnostic template because we didn't have one and we needed one; and I made it a placeholder template because we don't have community consensus (yet) on what a formatting-agnostic sidenotes template should look like and how it should work.
 * You do make a good point, however. Perhaps it would be better if, instead of a placeholder template that should be replaced when consensus is reached, I were to make it a permanent template that should be modified and updated with whatever behaviour is decided upon? Alternatively, I could just rename it, to at least remove the username as an issue. What do you think of this?
 * As for compiling the issues and use cases of the various existing sidenotes templates—that has already been done in much detail elsewhere (primarily by @ShakespeareFan00), and I do not think that this thread is the place for rehashing that whole discussion. I merely intended to inform the community of the template I created so that works containing sidenotes could still be proofread in the meantime. —Beleg Âlt BT (talk) 17:42, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikisource:Scriptorium/Archives/2024-02


text:
Page:The Innocents Abroad (1869).djvu/591

Rh houses is a very narrow porch-roof or shed, without supports from below; and I have several times seen cats jump across the street from one shed to the other when they were out calling. The cats could have jumped double the distance without extraordinary exertion. I mention these things to give an idea of how narrow the streets are. Since a cat can jump across them without the least inconvenience, it is hardly necessary to state that such streets are too narrow for carriages. These vehicles can not navigate the Holy City.

The population of Jerusalem is composecomposed [sic] of Moslems, Jews, Greeks, Latins, Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Abyssinians, Greek Catholics, and a handful of Protestants. One hundred of the latter sect are all that dwell now in this birthplace of Christianity. The nice shades of nationality comprised in the above list, and the languages spoken by them, are altogether too numerous to mention. It seems to me that all the races and colors and tongues of the earth must be represented among the fourteen thousand souls that dwell in Jerusalem. Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of Moslem rule more surely than the crescent-flag itself, abound. Lepers, cripples, the blind, and the idiotic, assail you on every hand, and they know but one word of but one language apparently—the eternal “bucksheesh.” To see the numbers of maimed, malformed and diseased humanity that

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Page:The Innocents Abroad (1869).djvu/592

560 throng the holy places and obstruct the gates, one might suppose that the ancient days had come again, and that the angel of the Lord was expected to descend at any moment to stir the waters of Bethesda. Jerusalem is mournful, and dreary, and lifeless. I would not desire to live here.

One naturally goes first to the Holy Sepulchre. It is right in the city, near the western gate; it and the place of the Crucifixion, and, in fact, every other place intimately connected with that tremendous event, are ingeniously massed together and covered by one roof—the dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Entering the building, through the midst of the usual assemblage of beggars, one sees on his left a few Turkish guards—for Christians of different sects will not only quarrel, but fight, also, in this sacred place, if allowed to do it. Before you is a marble slab, which covers the Stone of Unction, whereon the Saviour’s body was laid to prepare it for burial. It was found necessary to conceal the real stone in this way in order to save it from destruction. Pilgrims were too much given to chipping off pieces of it to carry home. Near by is a circular railing which marks the spot where the Virgin stood when the Lord’s body was anointed.

Entering the great Rotunda, we stand before the most sacred locality in Christendom—the grave of Jesus. It is in the centre of the church, and immediately under the great dome. It is inclosed in a sort of little temple of yellow and white stone, of fanciful design. Within the little temple is a portion of the very stone which was rolled away from the door of the Sepulchre, and on which the angel was sitting when Mary came thither “at early dawn.” Stooping low, we enter the vault—the Sepulchre itself. It is only about six feet by seven, and the stone couch on which the dead Saviour lay extends from end to end of the apartment and occupies half its width. It is covered with a marble slab which has been much worn by the lips of pilgrims. This slab serves as an altar, now. Over it hang some fifty gold and silver lamps, which are kept always burning, and the place is otherwise scandalized by trumpery gewgaws and tawdry ornamentation.


text: Page talk:A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (John Ball).djvu/272


text:
Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/197

 expenditure. West's mother-in-law is now over eighty years old. She is a fine hand at sewing, and used to help the settlement with her skill as a tailor. Every one in Phoenix called her Granny and felt that she was really related so to him. I need scarcely say anything about Mrs West. When many members of the Phoenix settlement were in jail, the Wests along with Maganlal Gandhi took over the whole management of the institution. West would see to the press and the paper, and in the absence of others and myself, dispatch to Gokhale the cables which were to be sent from Durban. When even West was arrested (though he was soon released), Gokhale got nervous and sent over Andrews and Pearson.

Then there was Mr Ritch. I have already written about him. He had joined my office before the struggle and proceeded to England for the bar with a view to filling my place when I was not available. He was the moving spirit of the South African British Indian Committee in London.

The third was Mr Polak, whose acquaintance like that of West I casually made in the restaurant. He likewise left at once the sub-editorship of The Transvaal Critic to join the staff of Indian Opinion. Every one knows how he went to India and to England in connection with the struggle. When Ritch went to England, I called Polak from Phoenix to Johannesburg, where he became my articled clerk and then a full-fledged attorney. Later on he married. People in India are familiar with Mrs Polak, who not only never came in her husband’s way but was a perfect help-mate to him during the struggle. The Polaks did not see eye to eye with us in the Non-co-operation movement, but they are still serving India to the best of their ability.

The next was Mr Hermann Kallenbach, whom too I came to know before the struggle. He is a German, and had it not been for the Great War, he would be in India today. He is a man of strong feelings, wide sympathies and child-like simplicity. He is an architect by profession, but there is no work, however lowly, which he would consider to be beneath his dignity. When I broke up my Johannesburg

S.A.-12

title: Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/197


text:
Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/198

 establishment, I lived with him, but he would be hurt if I offered to pay him my share of the household expenses, and would plead that I was responsible for considerable savings in his domestic economy. This was indeed true. But this is not the place to describe my personal relations with European friends. When we thought of accommodating the families of Satyagrahi prisoners in Johannesburg in one place, Kallenbach lent the use of his big farm without any rent. But more of that later. When Gokhale came to Johannesburg, the community put him up at Kallenbach’s cottage which the illustrious guest liked very much. Kallenbach went with me as far as Zanzibar to see Gokhale off. He was arrested along with Polak and suffered imprisonment. Finally, when I left South Africa to see Gokhale in England, Kallenbach was with me. But when I returned to India, he was not permitted to go with me to India on account of the war. He was like all other Germans interned in England. When the war was over Kallenbach returned to Johannesburg and recommenced the practice of his profession.

Let me now introduce the reader to a noble girl, I mean Miss Sonja Schlesin. I cannot resist the temptation of placing here on record Gokhale’s estimate of her character. He had a wonderful power of judging men. I went with him from Delagoa Bay to Zanzibar, and the voyage gave us a fine opportunity of quiet talks. Gokhale had come in contact with the Indian and European leaders in South Africa. And while minutely analysing for me the characters of the principal persons of the drama, I perfectly remember that he gave the pride of place among them all, Europeans as well as Indians, to Miss Schlesin: ‘I have rarely come across such purity, single-minded devotion to work and great determination as I have seen in Miss Schlesin. I was simply astonished how she had sacrificed her all for the Indian cause without expecting any reward whatever. And when you add to all this her great ability and energy, these qualities combine to make her a priceless asset to your movement. I need hardly say it and yet I say that you must cherish her.’ I had a

title: Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/198


text:
Page:The Mystery of the Blue Train.pdf/74

"," said Lady Tamplin, "well."

She laid down the continental Daily Mail and stared out across the blue waters of the Mediterranean. A branch of golden mimosa, hanging just above her head, made an effective frame for a very charming picture. A golden-haired, blue-eyed lady in a very becoming négligée. That the golden hair owed something to art, as did the pink-and-white complexion, was undeniable, but the blue of the eyes was Nature's gift, and at forty-four Lady Tamplin could still rank as a beauty.

Charming as she looked. Lady Tamplin was, for once, not thinking of herself. That is to say, she was not thinking of her appearance. She was intent on graver matters.

Lady Tamplin was a well-known figure on the Riviera, and her parties at the Villa Marquerite were justly celebrated. She was a woman of considerable experience, and had had four husbands. The first had been merely an indiscretion, and so was seldom referred to by the lady. He had had the good sense to die with commendable promptitude, and his widow thereupon espoused a rich manufacturer of buttons. He too had departed for another sphere after three years of married life—it was said after a congenial evening with some boon companions. After him came Viscount Tamplin, who had placed Rosalie securely on those 58


text:
Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/199

 Scottish girl, Miss Dick, working with me as stenotypist, who was the very picture of loyalty and purity. Many a bitter experience has been my portion in life, but I have also had the good fortune to claim a large number of Europeans and Indians of high character as my associates. Miss Dick left me when she married, and then Mr Kallenbach introduced Miss Schlesin to me and said, ‘This girl has been entrusted to me by her mother. She is clever and honest, but she is very mischievous and impetuous. Perhaps she is even insolent. You keep her if you can manage her. I do not place her with you for the mere pay.’ I was ready to allow £20 a month to a good stenotypist, but I had no idea of Miss Schlesin’s ability. Mr Kallenbach proposed that I should pay her £6 a month to begin with, and I readily agreed. Miss Schlesin soon made me familiar with the mischievous part of herself. But in a month’s time she had achieved the conquest of my heart. She was ready to work at all times whether by day or at night. There was nothing difficult or impossible for her. She was then only sixteen years of age, but she captivated my clients as well as the fellow Satyagrahis by her frankness and readiness to serve. This young girl soon constituted herself the watchman and warder of the morality not only of my office but of the whole movement. Whenever she was in doubt as to the ethical propriety of any proposed step, she would freely discuss it with me and not rest till she was convinced of it. When all the leaders except Sheth Kachhalia were in jail, Miss Schlesin had control of large funds and was in charge of the accounts. She handled workers of various temperaments. Even Sheth Kachhalia would have recourse to her and seek her advice. Mr Doke was then in charge of Indian Opinion. But even he, hoary-headed veteran as he was, would get the articles he wrote for Indian Opinion passed by her. And he once told me, ‘If Miss Schlesin had not been there, I do not know how I could have satisfied even my own self with my work. I cannot sufficiently appreciate the value of her assistance, and very often I have accepted the corrections or additions she suggested knowing them

title: Page:Satyagraha in South Africa.pdf/199


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 to be appropriate.’ Pathans, Patels, ex-indentured men, Indians of all classes and ages surrounded her, sought her advice and followed it. Europeans in South Africa would generally never travel in the same railway compartment as Indians, and in the Transvaal they are even prohibited from doing so. Yet Miss Schlesin would deliberately sit in the third class compartment for Indians like other Satyagrahis and even resist the guards who interfered with her. I feared and Miss Schlesin hoped that she might be arrested some day. But although the Transvaal Government were aware of her ability, her mastery over the ‘strategy’ of the movement, and the hold she had acquired over the Satyagrahis, they adhered to the policy and the chivalry of not arresting her. Miss Schlesin never asked for or desired an increase in her monthly allowance of £6. I began giving her £10 when I came to know of some of her wants. This too she accepted with reluctance, and flatly declined to have anything more. ‘I do not need more, and if I take anything in excess of my necessities, I will have betrayed the principle which has attracted me to you,’ she would say, and silence me. The reader will perhaps ask what was Miss Schlesin’s education. She had passed the Intermediate examination of the Cape University, and obtained first class diploma in shorthand etc. She graduated after the struggle was over, and is now head mistress in a Government Girls’ School in the Transvaal.

Herbert Kitchin was an English electrician with a heart pure as crystal. He worked with us during the Boer War and was for some time editor of Indian Opinion. He was a lifelong brahmachari.

The persons I have thus far mentioned were such as came in close contact with me. They could not be classed among the leading Europeans of the Transvaal. However, this latter class too was very largely helpful, and the most influential of such helpers was Mr Hosken, ex-President of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of South Africa and a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Transvaal, whose acquaintance the reader has already

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 heights where she wished to tread. She had retained her title when she married for a fourth time. This fourth venture had been undertaken for pure pleasure. Mr. Charles Evans, an extremely good-looking young man of twenty-seven, with delightful manners, a keen love of sport, and an appreciation of this world's goods, had no money of his own whatsoever.

Lady Tamplin was very pleased and satisfied with life generally, but she had occasional faint preoccupations about money. The button manufacturer had left his widow a considerable fortune, but, as Lady Tamplin was wont to say, "what with one thing and another" (one thing being the depreciation of stocks owing to the War, and the other the extravagances of the late Lord Tamplin). She was still comfortably off. But to be merely comfortably off is hardly satisfactory to one of Rosalie Tamplin's temperament.

So, on this particular January morning, she opened her blue eyes extremely wide as she read a certain item of news and uttered that noncommittal monosyllable "Well." The only other occupant of the balcony was her daughter, the Hon. Lenox Tamplin. A daughter such as Lenox was a sad thorn in Lady Tamplin's side, a girl with no kind of tact, who actually looked older than her age, and whose peculiar sardonic form of humour was, to say the least of it, uncomfortable.

"Darling," said Lady Tamplin, "just fancy."

"What is it?"

Lady Tamplin picked up the Daily Mail, handed it to her daughter, and indicated with an agitated fore-finger the paragraph of interest.

Lenox read it without any of the signs of agita-


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 made and who was Chairman of the Committee of European sympathizers with the Satyagraha movement. When the movement was in full swing, direct communications between Satyagrahis and the local Government were obviously out of the question, not because of any objection on principle on the part of the Satyagrahis to deal directly with Government but because the latter would naturally not confer with the breakers of its laws. And this Committee acted as mediator between the Indians and the Government.

I have already introduced Mr Albert Cartwright to the reader. Then there was Rev. Charles Phillips who joined and assisted us even as Mr Doke did. Mr Phillips had long been Congregational minister in the Transvaal. His good wife too did us much service. A third clergyman who had given up orders to take up the editorship of the Bloemfontein daily The Friend and who supported the Indian cause in his paper in the teeth of European opposition was Rev. Dewdney Drew, one of the best speakers in South Africa. A similarly spontaneous helper was Mr Vere Stent, editor of The Pretoria News. A mass meeting of Europeans was once held in the Town Hall of Pretoria under the presidency of the Mayor to condemn the Indian movement and to support the Black Act. Mr Vere Stent alone stood up in opposition to the overwhelming majority of anti-Indians and refused to sit down in spite of the president's orders. The Europeans threatened to lay hands on him, yet he stood unmoved and defiant like a lion, and the meeting dispersed at last without passing its resolution.

There were other Europeans whose names I could mention and who never missed an opportunity of doing us a good turn, although they did not formally join any association. But I propose to close this chapter with a few words about three ladies. One of these was Miss Hobhouse, the daughter of Lord Hobhouse, who at the time of the Boer War reached the Transvaal against the wishes of Lord Milner, and who single-handed moved among the Boer women, encouraged them and bade them

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 to Stand firm when Lord Kitchener had set up his famous or rather infamous ‘concentration camps’ in the Transvaal and the Free State. She believed the English policy in respect of the Boer War to be totally unrighteous, and therefore like the late Mr Stead she wished and prayed to God for England’s defeat in the war. Having thus served the Boers, she was shocked to learn that the same Boers, who had only recently resisted injustice with all their might, were now led into doing injustice to the Indians through ignorant prejudice. The Boers looked up to her with great respect and affection. She was very intimate with General Botha, and did her best to commend to the Boers the policy of repealing the Black Act.

The second lady was Miss Olive Schreiner, to whom I have already referred in a previous chapter. The name Schreiner is one to conjure with in South Africa, so much so that when Miss Schreiner married, her husband adopted her name so that (I was told) her relation with the Schreiners might not be forgotten among the Europeans of South Africa. This was not due to any false pride, as Miss Schreiner was as simple in habits and humble in spirit as she was learned. I had the privilege of being familiar with her. She knew no difference between her Negro servants and herself. Authoress of Dreams and many other works as she was, she never hesitated to cook, wash the pots or handle the broom. She held that far from affecting it adversely, such useful physical labour stimulated her literary ability and made for a sense of proportion and discrimination in thought and language. This gifted lady lent to the Indian cause the whole weight of her influence over the Europeans of South Africa.

The third lady was Miss Molteno, an aged member of that ancient family of South Africa, who also did her best for the Indians.

The reader may ask what fruit all this sympathy of the Europeans bore. Well, this chapter has not been written to describe the practical consequences of their sympathy. The work detailed above of some of these friends bears witness to a portion of the result. The very

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 nature of Satyagraha is such that the fruit of the movement is contained in the movement itself. Satyagraha is based on self-help, self-sacrifice and faith in God. One of my objects in enumerating the names of European helpers is to mark the Satyagrahis’ gratefulness to them. This history would be justly considered incomplete without such mention. I have not tried to make the list exhaustive, but have tendered the Indians’ thanks to all in selecting a few for especial mention. Secondly, as a Satyagrahi I hold to the faith, that all activity pursued with a pure heart is bound to bear fruit, whether or not such fruit is visible to us. And last but not the least, I have tried to show that all truthful movements spontaneously attract to themselves all manner of pure and disinterested help. If it is not clear already, I should like to make it clear that no other effort whatever was made during the struggle to enlist European sympathy beyond the effort, if effort it can be called, involved in adherence to Truth and Truth alone. The European friends were attracted by the inherent power of the movement itself.

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 tion shown by her mother. She handed back the paper.

"What about it?" she asked. "It is the sort of thing that is always happening. Cheese-paring old women are always dying in villages and leaving fortunes of millions to their humble companions."

"Yes, dear, I know," said her mother, "and I dare say the fortune is not anything like as large as they say it is; newspapers are so inaccurate. But even if you cut it down by half"

"Well," said Lenox, "it has not been left to us."

"Not exactly, dear," said Lady Tamplin; "but this girl, this Katherine Grey, is actually a cousin of mine. One of the Worcestershire Greys, the Edgeworth lot. My very own cousin! Fancy!"

"Ah-ha," said Lenox."

"And I was wondering" said her mother.

"What there was in it for us," finished Lenox, with that sideways smile that her mother always found difficult to understand.

"Oh, darling," said Lady Tamplin, on a faint note of reproach.

It was very faint, because Rosalie Tamplin was used to her daughter's outspokenness and to what she called Lenox's uncomfortable way of putting things.

"I was wondering," said Lady Tamplin, again drawing her artistically pencilled brows together, "whetheroh, good morning. Chubby darling; are you going to play tennis? How nice!"

Chubby, thus addressed, smiled kindly at her, remarked perfunctorily, "How topping you look in that peach-coloured thing," and drifted past them and down the steps.


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 applied to the tin whistle in France) in contradistinction to "the Helvetian [i.e., transverse] flute," but it certainly was not an English invention, though it is depicted in a Psalter of the twelfth century preserved in the Library of Glasgow University. A Cornish miracle-play of the fourteenth century includes "recordys" among the instruments played by King David's minstrels.

The Recorder was an open pipe fitted with a fipple-head and mouthpiece like a whistle, having seven finger-holes, with a thumb-hole at the back. The lowest hole was sometimes in duplicate for the use of left-handed players (hence the French called it "Flute à neuf trous"); the hole not required was stopped with wax. Later examples have an open key over this lowest hole, enclosed in a perforated wooden case and. fitted with double "cusps" or "touches." (See Fig. 11.) There were regular sets of recorders (called "chests," because they were all kept in one box) of different pitches and varying dimensions, ranging from sopranino to double bass, which last was over eight feet long, and was blown through a bent crook, somewhat like a bassoon, but coming out of the top. It sometimes had two pedal keys played by the feet of the performer, between which the end rested on the ground, the sound escaping through


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 poetical musings. His study was the kitchen, where his wife's bellows served him for a desk; and he wrote amidst the cries and cradlings of his children. Paine's 'Age of Reason' having appeared about this time and excited much interest, he composed a pamphlet in refutation of its arguments, which was published. He used afterwards to say that it was the 'Age of Reason' that made him an author. Various pamphlets from his pen shortly appeared in rapid succession, and a few years later, while still working at shoemaking, he wrote and published his admirable 'Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Human Soul,' which he sold for twenty pounds, a great sum in his estimation at the time. The book went through many editions, and is still prized.

Drew was in no wise puffed up by his success, as many young authors are, but, long after he had become celebrated as a writer, used to be seen sweeping the street before his door, or helping his apprentices to carry in the winter's coals. Nor could he, for some time, bring himself to regard literature as a profession to live by. His first care was to secure an honest livelihood by his business, and to put into the "lottery of literary success," as he termed it, only the surplus of his time. At length, however, he devoted himself wholly to literature, more particularly in connexion with the Wesleyan body; editing one of their magazines, and superintending the publication of several of their denominational works. He also wrote in the 'Eclectic Review,' and compiled and published a valuable history of his native county, Cornwall, with numerous other works. Towards the close of his career, he said of himself,—"Raised from


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 We have had some idea of our internal difficulties in Chapter XXII. When I was assaulted in Johannesburg, my family lived in Phoenix and were naturally anxious about me. But it was not possible for them to expend money on the journey from Phoenix to Johannesburg. It was therefore necessary for me to see them after my recovery.

I was often on the move between the Transvaal and Natal in connection with my work. From the letters of Natal friends I was aware that in Natal too the settlement had been grossly misunderstood. And I had received a sheaf of correspondence addressed to Indian Opinion in which adverse criticism was passed on the settlement. Although the Satyagraha struggle was still confined to the Transvaal Indians, we must seek the support and enlist the sympathies of the Natal Indians also. The Transvaal struggle was not a mere local affair and the Indians in the Transvaal were really fighting the battle on behalf of all the Indians in South Africa. And therefore also I must go to Durban and remove the misunderstandings prevalent there. So I took the first opportunity to run up to Durban.

A public meeting of the Indians was called in Durban. Some friends had warned me beforehand that I would be attacked at this meeting and that I should therefore not attend it at all or at least take steps for defending myself. But neither of the two courses was open to me. If a servant when called by his master fails to respond through fear, he forfeits his title to the name of servant. Nor does he deserve the name if he is afraid of the master's punishment. Service of the public for service's sake is like walking on the sword's edge. If a servant is ready enough for praise he may not flee in the face of blame. I therefore

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 presented myself at the meeting at the appointed time. I explained to the meeting how the settlement had been effected, and also answered the questions put by the audience. The meeting was held at 8 o’clock in the evening. The proceedings were nearly over when a Pathan rushed to the platform with a big stick. The lights were put out at the same time. I grasped the situation at once. Sheth Daud Muhammad the chairman stood up on the chairman’s table and tried to quell the disturbance. Some of those on the platform surrounded me to defend my person. The friends who feared an assault had come to the place prepared for eventualities. One of them had a revolver in his pocket and he fired a blank shot. Meanwhile Parsi Rustomji who had noticed the gathering clouds went with all possible speed to the police station and informed Superintendent Alexander, who sent a police party. The police made a way for me through the crowd and took me to Parsi Rustomji’s place.

The next day Parsi Rustomji brought all the Pathans of Durban together in the morning, and asked them to place before me all their complaints against me. I met them and tried to conciliate them, but with little success. They had a preconceived notion that I had betrayed the community, and until this poison was removed, it was useless reasoning with them. The canker of suspicion cannot be cured by arguments or explanations.

I left Durban for Phoenix the same day. The friends who had guarded me the previous night would not let me alone, and informed me that they intended to accompany me to Phoenix. I said, ‘I cannot prevent you if you will come in spite of me. But Phoenix is a jungle. And what will you do if we the only dwellers in it do not give you even food?’ One of the friends replied, ‘That won’t frighten us. We are well able to look after ourselves. And so long as we are a-soldiering, who is there to prevent us from robbing your pantry?’ We thus made a merry party for Phoenix.

The leader of this self-appointed guard was Jack Moodaley, a Natal-born Tamilian well known among the

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 "The dear thing," said Lady Tamplin, looking affectionately after her husband. "Let me see, what was I saying? Ah!" She switched her mind back to business once more. "I was wondering"

"Oh, for God's sake get on with it. That is the third time you have said that."

"Well, dear," said Lady Tamplin, "I was thinking that ifit [sic] would be very nice if I wrote to dear Katherine and suggested that she should pay us a little visit out here. Naturally, she is quite out of touch with Society. It would be nicer for her to be launched by one of her own people. An advantage for her and an advantage for us."

"How much do you think you would get her to cough up?" asked Lenox.

Her mother looked at her reproachfully and murmured.

"We should have to come to some financial arrangement, of course. What with one thing and anotherthe Waryour poor father"

"And Chubby now," said Lenox. "He is an expensive luxury if you like."

"She was a nice girl as I remember her," murmured Lady Tamplin, pursuing her own line of thought"quiet, never wanted to shove herself forward, not a beauty, and never a man-hunter."

"She will leave Chubby alone, then?" said Lenox.

Lady Tamplin looked at her in protest. "Chubby would never" she began.

"No," said Lenox, "I don't believe he would; he knows a jolly sight too well which way his bread is buttered."


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 Indians as a trained boxer. He and his companions believed that no man in South Africa, whether white or coloured, was a match for him in that branch of sport.

In South Africa I had for many years been in the habit of sleeping in the open at all times except when there was rain. I was not prepared now to change the habit and the self-constituted guard decided to keep watch all night. Though I had tried to laugh these men out of their purpose, I must confess that I was weak enough to feel safer for their presence. I wonder if I could have slept with the same ease if the guard had not been there. I suppose I should have been startled by some noise or other. I believe that I have an unflinching faith in God. For many years have accorded intellectual assent to the proposition that death is only a big change in life and nothing more, and should be welcome whenever it arrives. I have deliberately made a supreme attempt to cast out from my heart all fear whatsoever including the fear of death. Still I remember occasions in my life when I have not rejoiced at the thought of approaching death as one might rejoice at the prospect of meeting a long lost friend. Thus man often remains weak notwithstanding all his efforts to be strong, and knowledge which stops at the head and does not penetrate into the heart is of but little use in the critical times of living experience. Then again the strength of the spirit within mostly evaporates when a person gets and accepts support from outside. A Satyagrahi must be always on his guard against such temptations.

While in Phoenix I did just one thing. I wrote a great deal with a view to removing misunderstandings about the compromise, including an imaginary dialogue for Indian Opinion in which I disposed of in ample detail the objections advanced and criticisms passed against the settlement. I believe that this dialogue produced a good effect. It was found that the Transvaal Indians, whose misunderstanding of the settlement, if persistent, would have led to really disastrous results, did not long misunderstand it. It was only for the Transvaal Indians to

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 included in the royal band from the reign of Henry VII. down to that of Charles 11. One, named Nicholas Staggins, of bibulous tendencies—in 1695 he owed £120 for beer—accompanied King William to Holland. John Banister, leader of the Drury Lane band till 1720, was a famous performer. In 1695 the Royal Academy in Charles Street, Covent Garden, advertised in The Athenian Gazette that they gave lessons on the recorder. A typical fop of the period is depicted in a full-trimmed blue suit, with scarlet stockings rolled above his knees, a large white peruke, and playing on a recorder nearly an ell long. The instrument was frequently included in the scores of Handel and Bach, the last great composers to use it. It began to die out in France about 1750, but was played at a concert so late as 1800. In the end it was ousted by the new transverse or "German" flute (the recorder being then known as the "common" flute). It is now replaced by the more perfect clarinet, which also  dealt a death-blow to the flageolet, a whistle-pipe with a receptacle for holding a sponge, introduced by Sieur Juvigny in 1581. John Hudgebut, in the preface to his Vade-mecum for the lovers of Musick (1679), contrasts the two instruments thus:—"Though the Flagilet like Esau hath got the start, as being of a more Antient standing, The Rechorder like Jacob hath got the Birth-right, being much more in Esteem and Veneration with


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 accept or to reject the settlement. They were on their trial as well as myself as their leader and servant. In the end there were hardly any Indians who had not registered themselves voluntarily. There was such a rush of the applicants for registration that the officers concerned were hard pressed with work, and in a very short time the Indians had fulfilled their part of the settlement. Even the Government had to admit this, and I could see that the misunderstanding, though of an acute nature, was quite limited in its extent. There was no doubt a great deal of stir when some Pathans violently took the law into their own hands. But such violent stir, when analysed, often turns out to have no bottom at all and is equally often only temporary. And yet it is a power in the world today as we are apt to be unnerved in the face of violence. If however we calmly think about it, we shall find that there is no reason for nervousness. Just suppose that Mir Alam and his friends, instead of only wounding, had actually destroyed my body. And suppose also that the community, had deliberately remained calm and unperturbed, and forgiven the offenders perceiving that according to their lights they could not behave otherwise than they did. Far from injuring the community, such a noble attitude would have greatly benefited them. All misunderstanding would have disappeared, and Mir Alam and party would have had their eyes opened to the error of their ways. As for me, nothing better can happen to a Satyagrahi than meeting death all unsought in the very act of Satyagraha, i.e., pursuing Truth. All these propositions are true only of a struggle like the Satyagraha movement, where there is no room for hatred, where self-reliance is the order of the day, where no one has to look expectantly at another, where there are no leaders and hence no followers, or where all are leaders and all are followers, so that the death of a fighter, however eminent, makes not for slackness but on the other hand intensifies the struggle.

Such is the pure and essential nature of Satyagraha, not realized in practice, because not every one of us has

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 shed hatred. In actual practice the secret of Satyagraha is not understood by all, and the many are apt unintelligently to follow the few. Again as Tolstoy observed, the Transvaal struggle was the first attempt at applying the principle of Satyagraha to masses or bodies of men. I do not know any historical example of pure mass Satyagraha. I cannot however formulate any definite opinion on the point, as my knowledge of history is limited. But as a matter of fact we have nothing to do with historical precedents. Granted the fundamental principles of Satyagraha, it will be seen that the consequences I have described are bound to follow as night the day. It will not do to dismiss such a valuable force with the remark that it is difficult or impossible of application. Brute force has been the ruling factor in the world for thousands of years, and mankind has been reaping its bitter harvest all along, as he who runs may read. There is little hope of anything good coming out of it in the future. If light can come out of darkness, then alone can love emerge from hatred.

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 the Nobility and Gentry, whilst the Flagilet sinks down a servant to the Pages and Footmen."

Other primitive forms of pipe, such as the Syrinz or Pan-pipes (still used as an orchestral instrument in Roumania, but with us relegated to the Punch and Judy man), the straw flute, the Eunuch flute, and the Tabor and Pipe—a long whistle pipe with two holes in front and one behind—are outside the scope of the present work.


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 "Darling," said Lady Tamplin, "you have such a coarse way of putting things."

"Sorry," said Lenox.

Lady Tamplin gathered up the Daily Mail and her négligée, a vanity-bag, and various odd letters.

"I shall write to dear Katherine at once," she said, "and remind her of the dear old days at Edgeworth."

She went into the house, a light of purpose shining in her eyes.

Unlike Mrs. Samuel Harfield, correspondence flowed easily from her pen. She covered four sheets without pause or effort, and on re-reading it found no occasion to alter a word.

Katherine received it on the morning of her arrival in London. Whether she read between the lines of it or not is another matter. She put it in her handbag and started out to keep the appointment she had made with Mrs. Harfield's lawyers.

The firm was an old-established one in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and after a few minutes' delay Katherine was shown into the presence of the senior partner, a kindly, elderly man with shrewd blue eyes and a fatherly manner.

They discussed Mrs. Harfield's will and various legal matters for some minutes, then Katherine handed the lawyer Mrs. Samuel's letter.

"I had better show you this, I suppose," she said, "though it is really rather ridiculous."

He read it with a slight smile.

"Rather a crude attempt. Miss Grey. I need hardly tell you, I suppose, that these people have no claim of


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 The reader has seen something of the internal difficulties, in describing which I had to draw largely upon my own life story, but that could not be avoided, as my own difficulties regarding Satyagraha became equally the difficulties of the Satyagrahis. We now return to the external situation.

I am ashamed of writing the caption of this chapter as well as the chapter itself, for it deals with the obliquity of human nature. Already in 1908 General Smuts ranked as the ablest leader in South Africa, and today he takes a high place among the politicians of the British Empire, and even of the world. I have no doubt about his great abilities. General Smuts is as able a general and administrator as he is a lawyer. Many other politicians have come and gone in South Africa, but from 1907 up to date the reins of Government have practically been held throughout by this gentleman, and even today he holds a unique position in the country. It is now nine years since I left South Africa. I do not know what epithet the people of South Africa now bestow upon General Smuts. His Christian name is Jan, and South Africa used to call him ‘slim Janny.’ Many English friends had asked me to beware of General Smuts, as he was a very clever man and a trimmer, whose words were intelligible only to himself and often of a kind that either party could interpret them in a sense favourable to himself. Indeed on a suitable occasion he would lay aside the interpretations of both the parties, put a fresh interpretation upon them, carry it out and support it by such clever arguments that the parties for the time would be led to imagine that they were wrong themselves and General Smuts was right in construing the words as he did. As regards the events I

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 any kind upon the estate, and if they endeavour to contest the will no court will uphold them."

"I thought as much."

"Human nature is not always very wise. In Mrs. Samuel Harfield’s place, I should have been more inclined to make an appeal to your generosity."

"That is one of the things I wanted to speak to you about. I should like a certain sum to go to these people."

"There is no obligation."

"I know that."

"And they will not take it in the spirit it is meant. They will probably regard it as an attempt to pay them off, though they will not refuse it on that account."

"I can see that, and it can't be helped."

"I should advise you. Miss Grey, to put that idea out of your head."

Katherine shook her head. "You are quite right, I know, but I should like it done all the same."

"They will grab at the money and abuse you all the more afterwards."

"Well," said Katherine, "let them if they like. We all have our own ways of enjoying ourselves. They were, after all, Mrs. Harfield’s only relatives, and though they despised her as a poor relation and paid no attention to her when she was alive, it seems to me unfair that they should be cut off with nothing."

She carried her point, though the lawyer was still unwilling, and she presently went out into the streets of London with a comfortable assurance that she could spend money freely and make what plans she liked for


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 am now going to describe, we believed and said, when they happened, that General Smuts had played us false. Even today, I look upon the incident as a breach of faith from the Indian community’s standpoint. However I have placed a mark of interrogation after the phrase, as in point of fact the General’s action did not perhaps amount to an intentional breach of faith. It could not be described as breach of faith if the intention was absent. My experience of General Smuts in 1913-14 did not then seem bitter and does not seem so to me today, when I can think of the past events with a greater sense of detachment. It is quite possible that in behaving to the Indians as he did in 1908 General Smuts was not guilty of a deliberate breach of faith.

These prefatory words were necessary in justice to General Smuts, as well as in defence of the use of the phrase ‘breach of faith’ in connection with his name and of what I am going to say in the present chapter.

We have seen in the last chapter how the Indians registered voluntarily to the satisfaction of the Transvaal Government. The Government must now repeal the Black Act and if they did, the Satyagraha struggle would come to an end. This did not mean the end of the entire mass of anti-Indian legislation in the country or the redress of all the Indian grievances, for which the Indians must still continue their constitutional agitation. Satyagraha was directed solely to the scattering of the new and ominous cloud on the horizon in the shape of the Black Act, which if accepted by the Indians, would have humiliated them and prepared the way for their final extinction first in the Transvaal and then throughout South Africa. But instead of repealing the Black Act, General Smuts took a fresh step forward. He maintained the Black Act on the statute book and introduced into the legislature a measure, validating the voluntary registrations effected and the certificates issued subsequent to the date fixed by the Government in terms of that Act, taking the holders of the voluntary registration certificates out of its operation, and making further provision for the registration of

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