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22 Jul 60 Julius Fyzabad Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Fyzabad

22 – 7 – 60

My dear Mother

I was rejoiced to receive by the last Mail a confirmation of the good news imparted by the previous one. I congratulate my Father much on his better health & hope that now the crisis is past, time & rest may do the remainder towards establishing him again as a strong & hearty man. This of course we can expect only in time & perhaps a long time. You must insist on his taking every care of himself for a long while to come.

We had a nasty accident here the other day, to our new Mess House. I must tell you it is a very large place, the Mess Room of course proportionately large. The roof which was nearly flat & of great weight was supported by immense beams which, in their turn, were supported on one side be the wall; on the other by Pillars & a series of Arches running from one Pillar to the other. When this was all made & being plastered, we of course were getting up a great entertainment to come off on the night we were to have used it. Every one in the Station was coming.

One fine day a slight crack was observed in a Pillar, so Capt. Boyce who manages the affairs of the Mess & the House in particular, sent for an officer of the Engineers and together they went over to have a look at it. Whilst they were looking at the crack I was in my house about 400 yds off and I heard a crash like thunder. On running out I found the whole place enclosed in a cloud of dust. I was over there immediately. I never yet saw anything which came up to one’s idea of a Chaos much nearer. One did not know what to begin with or where to commence.

I stumbled against Boyce & Ward in the veranda. The latter had been knocked down but had extracted himself. Both had lost their hats. As the dust cleared away one saw people (Native work people) scrambling from amongst the ruins and then one began to conceive the nature of the smash. The whole Pillars & Arches & Roof, all most substantially built, the latter one mass of wood & masonry had come down on the Room full of men, women & children employed at work there. Some we could see parts of. Others were held in our view amongst the ruins by the timbers which had

fallen on them.

We sent down for the men & up they came sharp. The whole community of the Station seemed quickly to be gathered together then. The men worked as Englishmen only can work. We all know that natives are very hard to kill. I never saw a better example of it than on this occasion. Out of the whole number there at the time the smash happened (about 150) only five were downright killed.

In addition we got out over thirty wounded, of whom of course some died. This thing occurred about 4 P.M. Before an hour we had all the sufferers out except one (& he was dug out while we were at Mess in the adjoining rooms about 8 P.M.) but the whole Regt. was at work & tools answering to an English spade were in plenty.

It has been a most lamentable affair. Keeping the poor creatures who were hurt out of the question even, it is very annoying to us as it will affect our pockets considerably. But what a providential escape for us that it did not come down when we were all assembled there as we had intended to be, a few days after.

I trust John has been able to arrange his leave ere this & will soon be with to assist you in all your business.

The Rains here have been testing all our houses & nearly every one in the place leaks. Mine is as waterproof as any. I have still got a Companion in my house, so whenever we are overcome by the heat, we try to overcome each other in a good argument, which stirs us both up.

I am looking forward with dread to the Winter as I have to go hard at work again then at Musketry Instruction. I was so sick of it after the last Course that I can hardly yet bear even to think on the subject. Now I have my Company to look after & little other work besides, the Dogs give me a good deal of trouble this hot weather.

I am tolerably contented & happy. If I can even manage to pass the Examination in the Hindustani language which I hope some day I may be able to, I will not mind stopping out here until you will want to see me again in England. At present, the only things that give me trouble are Rupees (of which I don’t seem to get enough), but if I do ever succeed in being a P.H. with some Staff Appointment & lots of money, I may do. Of course one has Ambition to satisfy. I however do not seem to do much in that way, do I? Five years a Lieut. is a long while nowadays.

I hope you are all well at home & with best love to Helen & all others

I am yr affect Son

JDLaurie