Letter from India 1912
Lahore, India, Oct. 3rd. 1912. Dear Friends in Big Run: In accordance with a request of your editor, I am writing a short sketch of my voyage, which I hope may be of interest to some. At 6:45 a.m. Aug. 7th, 1912, I left Big Run for New York, via Williams Port, Reading and Philadelphia, stopping off at each place for a few hours. At 6:00 p.m. Thursday, when I landed from the 23rd St. ferry in New York, I found waiting for me, Mr. Irvin Rogers, formerly of Big Run, Mr. R. S. Boots and Mr. C. R. Daubenspeck. Having seen as much of the city as possible, I sailed for Southampton on the Oceanic at noon, Aug. 10. We lost sight of land at about 4:00 p.m. and saw only water and sky, with an occasional boat between, for the next six and a half days. The weather was cold and damp during about half the Atlantic trip, and the other half was warm and sunny. There were deck games outside and cards inside, for those who were interested. There was also a good library and plenty of pens, ink and paper for those who preferred to indulge. The constant vibration of the boat, due to the engines, afforded a ready excuse for illegible writing. At 7:30, Saturday morning, some of our passengers were landed at Plymouth; other left us at Cherbourg at about noon and the rest of us landed at Southampton at about 6:30. We had about 67 second class passengers many of them only third class people. There were about 57 varieties, little, middle and big; good, bad, and indifferent. A fat mill owner, a thin man who was intoxicated most of the time and wanted to talk politics all the time; a “manufacturer” of antiques and a girl not especially noticeable for beauty who was quick to take every opportunity to talk with the sailors or any other young man who would not avoid her. There was a young English lady, not more than 45 and unmarried, who spent part of her time trying to get a definition for “love” from the men. I suppose such people are to be found everywhere. The special train which took us to London was rather interesting to me. It was made up of about 12 “carriages” each of which had three compartments, and it was mounted on four light wheels. The locomotive weighs about 40 tons but seemed to haul the light train with ease. The largest English cars I saw are not half as large as the ordinary American cars. The coal cars, “goods cars” and...
A Family of Formanites
The caption says it all. We would be interested in hearing from any Formanite who has this many (or more!) Formanite family members. Contact us on 150@fccollege.edu.pk....
Students Health Examination 1914
Dr G. L. Batra reported on November 15th, 1914, as follows:‒ I made a medical examination of 353 students of Forman Christian College, and the following remarks will be found interesting as it is the first medical examination made in any Lahore Arts College. There were two kinds of forms used – one to be filled in by the student giving particulars about his personal history and family, and the other to be filled in by myself. Age of the students examined varied from 16 to 23 years, except in the case of half a dozen students whose age varied from 23 to 29 years. WEIGHT ‒ varied from 88 to 160 lb. HEIGHT ‒ varied from 4 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft. 2 in. HEART ‒ there were only 4 cases who had slight trouble, but nothing serious. LUNGS ‒ there were 15 students who had weak chests. TEETH ‒ about 12 cases of bad teeth. EARS, THROAT AND NOSE ‒ only 6 defective organs. VISION ‒ there are 46 students who wear glasses and 76 who have below normal vision. The general physique of the whole was fairly good, but a good many require physical exercise and should not be honorary members of gymnastics which means avoiding exercise. There were 250 Hindus, 78 Mohammedans, and 25 Christians. 250 HINDUS ‒ of these 121 vegetarians and 129 non-vegetarians. 120 of them were married at ages varying from 10 to 22 years, 45 of the remaining were betrothed between the ages of 2 and 19 years. There are 21 out of 250 students who have confessed to smoking, but I am sure the numbers of smokers is more than that. 78 MOHAMMEDANS ‒ of these 21 were married at the ages varying from 13 to 21 years and 12 of the remaining are betrothed. There are 16 students who have confessed to smoking. 25 CHRISTIANS ‒ none of them married or betrothed. Only 7 have confessed to smoking. I would leave you to draw your own conclusions from the above facts....
Moving Home
During these early years in Lahore the problem of a suitable residence for Dr. Forman and the Newton family was very real. Suitable houses were scarce and had to be given up whenever necessary for military officers. During one period of about six month the Lieutenant Governor, Sir Henry Lawrence, insisted that the Newtons and Dr Forman live with him. They were able finally to occupy the house of a Frenchman, General Court, who served with Ranjit Singh. This house was near the mausoleum of Nazir Khan, 2 ½ miles from Lahore Railway Station on the way to Amritsar. The Newton family occupied the house and Dr. Forman the mausoleum. Their goods were moved to these new quarters by elephants provided by Sir Henry Lawrence. Flies were apparently as bad then in Lahore as they are now, and we read of an interesting way of disposing of some of them. The Newtons, at least the children, would get together some gunpowder, mix it with sugar and spread it on a table. When the mixture was black with flies a match would be touched to it and the whole go up in...
Dr Charles Forman
Dr Forman was born on the 3rd of March, 1821. He came to India in 1848 and, having paid a visit to the great Dr Duff, began his long and tedious journey to Ludhiana. From thence he proceeded to Lahore. Rang Mahal School was opened and the ground was prepared for a Collegiate department. But soon after the foundation of the Government College in 1864, he too laid the foundation of a Missionary College with eight students in the First Year Class. He was the first Principal of the College. After a short stay he went to America on furlough but during his absence the College collapsed owing to lack of resources. However, a footing was made and when Dr. Forman came back he opened a College class in the Rang Mahal School, known as the Mission College, but after a few years the present site of the College was purchased [ed: Neela Gumbad]. In the meantime Dr. Forman gave up his charge of the College and directed his attention solely to the welfare of the Rang Mahal School. The Forman Christian College to this day takes pride in celebrating the Founder’s Day on the 3rd of March, the birthday of her celebrated Founder. Source: The Folio, FCC Magazine, Jubilee Number....
The First
Forman Christian College has been a pioneer in many lines. She was the first to form a Graduates’ Association in 1896, the first to open a Biology Department in 1898, the first to adopt co-education in 1902, the first to open a Technical Chemistry Department (1919), the first to open Geography classes (1924), the first to conduct medical examination of students admitted to the College (1914). Her students were the first to receive the degree of B.Sc. from the University of Panjab....
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